Saviour
by Kwisatz Haderach
Summary: Naruto is taken in by Tsunade and Shizune. He is trained by the best Konoha has to offer in preparation for a future evil. There is more to Kyuubi than meets the eye as she offers Naruto guidance in his quest to rid the world of an even greater evil.
1. Unexpected circumstances

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto**

Saviour

**A/N**

Hi there! Before I start want to explain something about this story. The first couple of chapters will race through Naruto's young years. From the point of the academy graduation, the story will slow down drastically. The reason I'm doing things this way is because I want you to have a clear idea on what Naruto's childhood has been like and what his abilities are like.

Please be patient and work your way through these first chapters. I hope you'll enjoy the story!

**Chapter 1**

It had been a week since Kyuubi no Kitsune was defeated by Uzumaki Arashi, Konoha's Yondaime. He was forced to seal the strongest of all demons inside the body of his newborn son, Uzumaki Naruto. Now, inside the Hokage tower there was a vibrant buzz. Most Jounins and ANBU's were called in by Sandaime, who due to the death of the Fourth was forced to once again take up the role of Hokage since no one else was capable or willing to fill this position.

"Everyone, can I have your attention!" he yelled trying to overcome the noise. The room soon calmed down. "In the light of recent events there are some things I need you to know. Konoha has suffered dearly from the fox demon's actions but there are some things that need to be put straight. There appears to be a reason why we were attacked."

As soon as these words were spoken, the room filled with voices again, screams and questions from the shinobi, not understanding what the old man was talking about.

"Just before Yondaime sealed the fox inside his son Naruto there was a conversation between him and the fox. It turns out that Kyuubi did not resist the seal, but instead agreed to it."

Hearing these words the room seemed to explode. Many shinobi lost friends and relatives during the attack and now they are told that this demon wanted to be killed? They found it impossible to believe this.

"SILENCE!" the annoyed Hokage roared. "Let me explain everything first!"

The story they then heard startled them even more. The Hokage explained that Kyuubi came from her own realm down to earth to sacrifice herself to try and preserve life on earth as they know it. Years ago, before the nine-tailed fox demon became the leader of the demon realm; a very powerful demon that was to be executed for crimes against its own kind had fled the demon realm. This demon, more powerful than any other Youkai, had been captured through the combined effort of many Youkai clan leaders, before fleeing from captivity.

It ended up on earth, planning to kill everyone who dared to oppose it and rule the planet with an iron fist. As the escape and subsequent journey to earth took most of its strength, it would take decades to recuperate and finally start its reign. Until then the demon would stay low and rest.

On her way to Konoha, Kyuubi was sighted by Orochimaru. The snake sannin, who hated Konoha for not being allowed to become the Fourth instead of the much younger Arashi put a powerful cursed genjutsu over the fox demon, causing Kyuubi to lose sanity and attack everything that crossed her path.

After having obliterated several small settlements, she had reached Konoha. Instead of calling for the Fourth as she had planned, she attacked its people. Only when Yondaime had called forth the Shinigami, the genjutsu was released.

Too late to avoid her sealing, she briefly spoke with the Fourth and explained what had happened before being sealed in the small body of his only son, Naruto.

"So what the hell does this have to do with that demon baby?" an impatient ANBU asked, only to be smashed into a wall by a young, masked Jounin.

"Don't you EVER call the son of my sensei a demon child, you'll regret it," Kakashi said, fuming with anger as he continued his rant. "Young Naruto is not to blame, it's not like he had any choice in this. He has been chosen as the vessel for a reason all of you will have to understand very well!" Kakashi finished, carefully eyeing all the people present.

The Third continued, wary of the adversity displayed by some of the people present.

"I know that many of you have lost loved ones because of Kyuubi, however I will not permit anyone to vent this anger towards this boy. He carries a burden which is larger than any of you will ever understand." This demon here on earth cannot be stopped by any of us. We are by far not strong enough. Even Yondaime wouldn't last long against it. We don't know much about the being, only what Kyuubi told the Fourth. As the leader of the demon realm she saw it as her duty to do whatever it takes to make amends for the other demon's arrival here on earth. She came to the conclusion that the only way this demon can be stopped is through a combination of the most powerful demon and one of the most powerful humans."

Hearing this, the shinobi were starting to feel nervous, still not completely understanding everything. Some were still feeling a lot of hatred towards the young baby as they saw him as the personification of the fox Youkai. "So you mean to say that this boy will be the most powerful human? How can we be so sure?" another Jounin said.

"We can't know for sure until the boy has grown up," Sandaime answered. "Kyuubi identified Naruto as the human being with the largest potential, both physically and mentally. She agreed to be sealed inside Naruto so she can slowly merge her powers with his. At some point her existence will diminish completely. The seal Yondaime used enables her to communicate with him, but not until the boy is old enough to handle all of this."

One Jounin, obviously flabbergasted by all this news raised his hand.

"Hokage-sama, you keep referring to the demon fox as though it is female. Why is that?"

"Well," Sarutobi started. "Kyuubi _is_ female after all."

Annoyed by the surprised looks in the room, Anko gave a loud snort. "Hmph, I thought you would have realised by now that we _are_ the stronger gender after all."

The Third chuckled in amusement. He coughed once to get the attention again.

"Now, to get to the heart of the matter. Not many people know about Naruto's mother. Her name was Hitomi Akane."

Some of the older Jounin gasped when they heard this name. "Can it really be? Is the mother of this boy from THAT clan?"

The others looked at them, not understanding what they were talking about.

Sandaime went on. "The Hitomi clan doesn't belong to any Hidden Village. They are regarded as one of the most powerful clans ever to have walked this earth. A couple of years ago, they were attacked in a manner which hasn't been explained up until today. Only the ones who weren't around during the attack survived. They spread out over the lands to avoid another slaughter. This is how Hitomi Akane met the Fourth. They chose to keep their relationship a secret to ensure her life and because she didn't want her presence to harm our village in any way. After all, hasn't anyone you never wondered were he got his son from?"

It all started to make sense to the somewhat younger people. "The Hitomi clan were known for their bloodline, which had something to do with wild animals and their chakra. Not much is known about them as they were always very secretive when it came to their abilities. Combine this with the Fourth's bloodline and the powers that come from Kyuubi and I think we can be fairly sure that Naruto can grow up to be a VERY powerful shinobi."

"Now there are a couple of things we need to establish here and now. First of all, I do not want the next generation of children to be influenced by the obvious hatred from the people who have lost family and friends during the attack. They are way too ignorant to accept the truth. Naruto is NOT the demon fox, he is the one who in due time will achieve the disappearance of Kyuubi. He should be loved for this, not hated."

He then paused for a second, collecting his thoughts. "I will install a law stating that anyone breaking this rule will be punished severely. He is going to need all the support he can get. That is also where you come in."

He smirked at the sight of confusion amongst the assembled group. "Seeing that both his parents were geniuses, we can expect a very talented boy. However, I have decided that the normal path our young shinobi normally walk will not be the right one for him. This boy's name will be known outside the village walls. People will come after him, trying to make his power theirs. We all need to keep a close eye on him. Therefore, this boy needs to be trained as soon as possible so he can defend himself as well."

"So you want us to train this boy, isn't that right Hokage-sama?" Kakashi exclaimed. "Yes indeed. I want to ask some of you to volunteer for this. Initially his training will consist of developing his chakra control, stamina and knowledge. As he grows older and develops we will move on to ninjutsu, taijutsu and genjutsu. Don't forget that we are not just trying to train him to become an outstanding shinobi. We need him to save everyone… Is there anyone who would be willing to be involved in this boys training?" Sandaime asked, curious to see who would raise a hand.

The first one to do this was Kakashi. "I want to train this boy, Hokage-sama. He is the son of my sensei, to whom I owe a lot. I would be honoured to have him under my wings."

"So be it", the Hokage exclaimed. "Anyone else?"

"I TOO WILL TRAIN THIS SPIRITED YOUNG MAN! Maito Gai passionately yelled, causing everyone to sweat-drop. "I WILL NOT LET MY ETERNAL RIVAL TAKE ALL THE CREDIT WHEN THE FLAMING PASSION OF THIS BOY SAVES THE UNIVERSE BY REMOVING THE EVIL PRESENCE FROM THIS EARTH." He said once more, backing up his loud words by his trademark nice-guy pose.

"Well, I'm not going to let those crazy men jeopardise my future by training him so count me in as well," Anko said much to the surprise of many fellow shinobi. Given her history with Orochimaru and her cold demeanour, no one would have expected her to volunteer for this.

"Hokage-sama, if you please, I would like to be part of this boy's development too. I thank my life to his father. I believe I can teach him a lot with regard to battle knowledge and strategies," Nara Shikaku spoke up.

The Hokage smiled inwardly, seeing that some people are still able to see through the pain caused by the great Youkai.

"Very well", he said. "You four will start training the boy as soon as he can walk and talk. I will take care of him while 2 ANBU teams will search for the people that will take him in. You are to start looking for them immediately", he said while pointing at two ANBU captains.

"Who will we be looking for Hokage-sama, one of the captains asked curiously. "Well, I believe you all know them. We can only pray that their habits will not rub off on him," he hinted, thinking about two of his former students who have managed to keep the highest amount of sanity out of the three.

"Remember people, no hostility towards this boy! We all need to support him as much as we can. He is the only one who can help us. I will assign constant guarding for him. If we lose him to our enemies, all hell will break lose", Sandaime warned his subordinates. "Also, I don't want the villagers to know that Naruto is Yondaime's son. They will find out in due time. Training will start in approximately 1 year. Kakashi, Gai, Shikaku and Anko, you have to stay here a little bit longer. I want to go over a plan for Naruto's training with you. Everyone else, dismissed", he finally said

When everyone else was gone, Sandaime proceeded. "I want Naruto to grow up as normal as possible. I want him to make friends like every kid his age. He will perform his duties for the village when he is ready. The fact that he is a very special person doesn't mean that there aren't certain things he will have to do. Another thing, just before he died, Yondaime gave me instructions on his and Akane's legacies. Also I want you to know that Kyuubi has agreed to teach Naruto how to properly control his powers and skills. This will not happen before I believe he is ready though. I will place another seal over his current seals to prevent any of the demonic chakra to leak through the seal and to make communication impossible for now. I don't want him to find out about Kyuubi by accident."

The four nodded in understanding and were ordered to leave. When he was finally alone, the old man dropped in his chair, exhausted from the past week. He looked out of his window, upon the Hokage monument, engrossed in his thoughts.

"_Well my friend, I hope I will be able to fulfil your dying wish. The following years will prove to be most interesting."_

Then the sun broke through the clouds to shine bright into his office. He gave a relieved yet exhausted sigh and fell asleep.

**A/N**

Please review!


	2. Rapid development

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto**

**Chapter 2**

Tsunade and Jiraiya turned out to be quiet hard to find. By the time they were found and heard the news about the young demon vessel, they didn't hesitate but came back with their ANBU escorts immediately.

They both had their reasons to return to the village and be there for the young boy. The female sannin happened to be the only family he had left from within Konoha, albeit distant. Also, after all that had occurred recently she felt somewhat guilty for not being there to help when Kyuubi attacked. After losing both her lover and little brother while on active duty, she deserted her ninja way and wandered around the shinobi lands for years accompanied by her former apprentice and attendant Shizune.

She had been gravely disappointed by her former sensei's reluctance to push through her proposal to include a trained medic-nin in each ninja squad. For years she had spent her days drinking sake and losing her money through gambling. The news brought forward by the ANBU squad that found her had made her frozen heart melt a little. The thought of her far cousin's death and his son's terrible destiny saddened her and made her decide to return at once.

Jiraiya's reasons for returning were a lot less complicated. He felt he owed it to his former student to teach his son as well. Also he knew he would be the only one to be able to locate his mother's family. The Hitomi clan members left alive had turned into nomads, not staying at the same place for a long period of time. Only through his information network would Naruto be able to be trained in his Hitomi bloodline limit.

On their return, Tsunade and Shizune took the young baby in. At first Tsunade had her doubts about this, but when she heard that Jiraiya was the only other option, she quickly changed her mind. After all, she wasn't going to let her old team mate turn her only family left into a pervert like himself.

They soon moved into the abandoned Uzumaki manor on the edges of the village. The perverted hermit opted for a significantly smaller house near the village's hot springs. His reason was simple. Work still had to be conducted to collect the money he needed to fulfil his greatest dream; owning his very own chain of luxurious hot springs all through the ninja world.

With all of them back in Konoha and finally settled in, regular meetings were held to discuss Naruto's training plan. The Third wanted a thorough plan to be worked out before the boy's training would start. All of his senseis were given their own role in his training, which would commence as soon as he was able to walk steadily and could talk.

"Okay friends, tomorrow Naruto will start his quest to become stronger than any shinobi has ever been before him. I want to go over the details one more time to put all the heads in the same direction," Sandaime spoke.

It wasn't long after Naruto's first birthday. He already managed to walk properly and more and more words started to come out of his already loud mouth.

"First of all Tsunade-san and Shizune-san will teach the boy to draw out chakra and to mould and control it. Being medic-nins you are most proficient at this. This will also give you the chance to be with him more as you are his adopted family."

The aging Hokage continued, "Ladies, I understand your reasons for not performing any ninja duties thus far. However, now that you're used to live in Konoha again I want you two to take up active duty again."

"I will not teach Genins!" Tsunade yelled. "Taking care of one brat is more than enough for me. Also, I refuse to do any missions outside the village." She continued. The Hokage thought for a second and then suggested her taking charge of the hospital, work as a medic there and prepare for a system to train young ninjas as medic-nins in the future, knowing all too well that would sparkle her interest. Shizune agreed to be reinstated as Jounin, go on missions and assist her master in training future medics.

After the group finished discussing the rest of the plan, the Hokage dismissed them. When he was alone again he looked out of his window onto the Hokage Monument. After seeing the Fourth's sculpture, he looked up at the sky and thought.

"_Well old friend, I hope we're doing the right thing here. I'm sorry I couldn't help more. This village needs you so much more than me. If only I could have taken your place."_

When training started, Naruto was given a weighted suit to increase his stamina and chakra capacity faster. He would need to increase he speed for the upcoming taijutsu training as well. For a year and a half he would run around Konoha daily besides the chakra control training he received from his kaa-san and nee-chan. To much of their joy, their adopted son proved to be quite a fast student. Within no time he had learned to walk up trees and on water with the use of his chakra. Then the time came to introduce more advanced methods to him.

First he was taught to release chakra from his hands and climb trees using only his open hands. Coming from a family of known pranksters, he abused this technique to climb the Hokage Monument and dress up the former leaders of the village to his own design. This caused for the villagers to hate the 'demon boy' even more, demanding him to be killed or banished. It took a very angry and dangerous medical sannin to 'convince' them otherwise.

Naruto's physical development came on well. He had gotten used to his new suit quickly and was soon given a new one since he had already outgrown the first one. His new weighted suit turned out to be a lot heavier, three units to be precise which made it hard for him to walk, let alone do his daily running.

His new exercise made him use his chakra to move objects by enveloping the object with his chakra and pull it back to him or push it forward by releasing more chakra. He found this much more difficult to perform as it required very precise control. Too little chakra wouldn't move the object, while too much could damage it. He started off by trying to move eggs into marked areas on the floor. After months of breaking eggs he finally succeeded and was told to move on to kunai and shuriken. Some months later he managed to move his first weighted suit and even Nara Shikaku's young son Shikamaru.

The two spent a lot of time together and soon became best friends. They seemed to have a good influence on each other as Naruto calmed down a little bit and Shikamaru got rid of some of his laziness and carelessness, which made his mother happier than ever before. Shikaku introduced them to the game of shogi, forcing them to utilise their obvious above average intellect. They soon became very adept at playing this game, creating a friendly rivalry as each tried to come up with creative strategies to beat the other.

A couple of months before Naruto's third birthday, his mother and the Hokage decided it was time for him to start his taijutsu training. The Hokage's wish was for Naruto to learn more than one style to become a more complete fighter. Gai and Tsunade were his first sensei, teaching him Gai's Konoha Ryu style and his mother's medical taijutsu style.

On his third birthday, Shizune gave her little brother his fifth weighted suit, again 3 units heavier than the previous one. Because of his increasing stamina he was now able to drag his big sister along for about 20 metres. He found this new skill very useful in pulling new pranks. One day he used his developing stealth skills to sneak up on Gai and drag his screaming sensei into a nearby lake. He soon learned not to mess with the proud taijutsu master as he was put into a weighted suit twice as heavy as the one Shizune had given him. He also increased his daily training which caused Naruto to collapse due to exhaustion most days. Gai justified this by saying that 'his youthful spirit should not be stained by an appaling tendency to disrespect his admirable elders'.

At the age of five, Naruto came under Hatake Kakashi's tutelage. The lazy Jounin wasn't a stranger to the Uzumaki household anymore. A year before, it was him who along with Tsunade and Shizune told him about his parents and the demon sealed inside him. At first he was very distressed to find out that the greatest of all Youkai was trapped inside him, but after endless reassurance by his loved ones that he wasn't a demon but the one who kept it under control, he regained his upbeat composure and for the first time expressed his desire to become Hokage so that everyone would acknowledge him.

At the same time Naruto enrolled into the ninja academy. His sensei there was informed that Naruto was a special case who had been trained for some years already. Outside his classes, Naruto continued to train with Tsunade and Gai to further develop his chakra control and taijutsu skills. Kakashi, being the jutsu library he is, was instructed by Sandaime to help the prodigious Uzumaki in obtaining as many jutsus as possible. As expected, the boy was a quick learner but chose to perfect each new skill and incorporate it into his fighting style before moving on to the next one.

Having started his academy classes was the moment the Third had been instructed to start handing the boy the Uzumaki scrolls. He was ecstatic to receive techniques that actually belonged to his biological family. Kakashi and Jiraiya, being the ones who knew most about these skills because of their history with Yondaime, would help him in learning them, though they could only tell their student what to do as the techniques were all part of the Uzumaki bloodline limit.

One day, the two of them came to the Uzumaki manor to talk about Naruto's heritage. While the young boy worked his way through his fourth bowl of miso ramen, Jiraiya started. "Naruto, what do you know about your father?"

The eating child looked up from his precious food with a sparkle in his eyes and thought for a second. "Well I know he was the Fourth Hokage. The called him Konoha's Yellow Flash and he was very strong, strong enough to kick your ass Ero-sennin!"

Hearing this, Kakashi smirked as Jiraiya tried to control his twitching eye. "Shut up brat! I am the legendary toad sennin, feared all over the lands for my incredible powers!" he finished as he performed his stupid dance.

"Feared by bathing women you mean," was the boy's schmuck reply. "Do you think I haven't noticed you peeping around the hot springs?"

Thinking about his escapades around the springs, a light blush appeared on the older man's face as he quickly whipped his nose. "I'm merely conducting high class research for the good of the people for I am a slave of my success!" he defended himself, although in vain as the damage had already been done.

"Anyway, Kakashi and I are here to explain you a bit more about your father's bloodline limit and its techniques."

The words bloodline limit and techniques made their respondent jump up. "I have a bloodline limit? Really?"

Kakashi interrupted. "Well, actually you sort of have three bloodline limits. One from each of your parents and…" he paused for a second before continuing "…also because you have Kyuubi you will be able to obtain her techniques and as you are the only one who could do that we can consider that to be a bloodline limit as well."

This new information made Naruto believe he was the luckiest boy on the face of the planet. "THREE BLOODLINES? YOSH!" he yelled, showing some of Gai's strange behaviour had rubbed off on him.

The grey-haired Sharingan user spoke again. "Your Uzumaki bloodline has everything to do with speed. This is the reason you have been wearing weighted suits since you could walk." He looked proudly at his sensei's son. "You are improving rapidly, I couldn't wear the amount you have on you until I was 10 years old."

The toad sannin took over. "The bloodline limit doesn't consist of many jutsus, though the ones you have will definitely make up for that. The first techniques you will learn is called Kirameki no jutsu and the Uzumaki Kenamju taijutsu style." When he handed the boy the scrolls he said: "Before we start training tomorrow I expect you to have read the first stage of your new taijutsu style and the complete Kirameki scroll."

"We expect you to master Kirameki no jutsu within 6 months so you can actually use it without hand seals. Then we will move on to the second technique, called Shunshin no jutsu." Seeing the young boy understood what he had said he told him the rest. "These two techniques come together. Your Kirameki will enable you to move around at very high speed. If your normal speed is high already, then you will be even faster when you use Kirameki. When it is activated, a genjutsu will affect your opponent, causing them to see nothing more that a yellow flash because of your hair colour."

"Like I said the next step then is Shunshin no jutsu." Jiraiya went on. Normally a technique such as this one wouldn't be very special as it is simply a teleportation skill. Its power lies in the speed at which it is used. When mastered and used together with Kirameki no jutsu, enemies will not be able to defend themselves properly as they haven't got enough time to do that. Using these two techniques your father managed to decimate the Stone Village significantly during the last Great Shinobi War." he concluded, his voice filled with parental pride thinking back of his legendary student.

Kakashi finished the explanation. "When you're older and stronger you will be learning many of the sealing techniques your family is famous for, but that will be much later."

"Meet us at the Uzumaki training ground tomorrow at 05:00 am so we can make a start before your first academy class," Jiraiya said as he patted the young boy on the back. "For the next year or so we will work on these skills. One of us will train with you on this every other day, but in the meantime we expect you to train alone. The time has come to become serious about your training."

Naruto's other sensei added to the strict words. "Slacking off will be out of the question. Besides the Uzumaki techniques, I will start teaching you elemental ninjutsu as well. You are expected to master a new jutsu every three weeks. If we find out you've been neglecting your other training and your academy classes you'll have to answer to us."

Naruto just stood there dumbfounded. "NANI? How do you want me to pull that off? Do you expect me just to stop sleeping from now on?"

A big smirk appeared on Jiraiya's face. "As a matter of fact we do. As you know Kyuubi has offered to assist in your training so I think we should pay the nice lady a visit. Thus far, you have been kept from being able to talk to Kyuubi because of an extra seal placed on you by the Third. I will release that seal for a couple of minutes to allow us to see her. Afterwards, I will put it back as we don't want you to worry about those things yet," he said as he wondered what the nine-tailed lady fox would look like in a bathing suit.

Before Naruto could say anything, he quickly performed some seals and put his hands on the demon seal and Naruto's head.

Inside his body, Kyuubi explained to him that there was a reason why she had been sealed inside his body, without yet revealing his terrible destiny. She told him not to worry as she promised she wouldn't try to harm him or take over. She told him she would start paying him rent by given him some of her powers like her fast healing, which the boy didn't have up until now and the fox's advanced senses.

She would start given him small portions of her chakra, which his body would merge with his own. He was told that at the moment he was by far not strong enough to learn any of her demonic jutsus, but that she would start teaching him about the shinobi history and things about every shinobi village and its people.

Before he returned back to reality, Jiraiya asked for his student to be able to go without sleep for a couple of nights. Kyuubi's answer was that she was aware of Naruto's exploits so she would know when to boost his body, enabling him to stay awake longer. When the jutsu was cancelled, Naruto fell asleep almost instantly because of the great strain the jutsu had put on his mind.

Six months after his first talk with Kyuubi, his training was progressing smoothly. Tsunade was very proud of her adopted son, but sad because they couldn't see each other as much as they would have liked as both led busy lives. The medic-nin training program had been up and running for two years now and more and more shinobi signed up for it. Because Tsunade and Shizune were the only ones skilled enough, all the training came down to them.

Naruto was given another weighted suit with the old one becoming too small and too light. His academy classes were boring but the Third and his mother insisted upon him doing the same as everyone else.

Tsunade had forced her young son to learn some useful healing jutsus, not because he would ever need them but they could always come in handy for one of his future team mates. She had given up on convincing him to become a full-fledged medic-nin as it was clear that didn't interest him. He always pushed himself to show enough interest in it to prevent upsetting his mother but for him that was as far as it goes.

He was now able to perform Kirameki no jutsu without the use of hand seals most of the time and was able to keep it activated for longer periods of time. Kakashi had recently made a start teaching him Shunshin no jutsu.

Having reached a very decent level of Gai's Konoha Ryu taijutsu style, it was decided that his training time in this style would be brought back to a quarter of its original. This gave Gai, who was also well informed in the Uzumaki style, the chance to focus on that part of the boy's training. This in return gave Kakashi the time to train more on the blonde's ninjutsu and perform his own missions for the village.

By now, Naruto had learned 11 techniques, of which 5 were Katon, 3 Mizu, 2 Doton and 1 Raiton. He had already learned the obligatory academy techniques alongside Kage Bunshin no jutsu, which the Third taught him after being defeated by the brat's devastating Oroike no jutsu (sexy no jutsu).

Kyuubi kept on giving him more and more chakra, adding to the already impressive capacity for a boy his age. He was being taught during the two nights a week he actually slept. With the toad summoner's help he had learned to control his new chakra source. He signed the toad summoning contract himself. When he managed to summon Gamabunta, he obtained the mighty toad boss's co-operation by knocking him out with a toad version of Harem no jutsu, resulting in Konoha Forest being stenched in toad blood for weeks. He turned out to be the first academy student to have a summoning contract ever.

With Tsunade's permission, Naruto's medical taijutsu training was aborted as it was decided he knew enough of that now. Instead, he was introduced to Mitarashi Anko, who would start teaching him her specialty: (creepy) genjutsu. Although not very talented in this, the loudmouth blonde was able to learn a few illusions and was taught to recognise and handle some basic spells that were put on him. Even though he liked her a lot, Anko often freaked him out with her seductive sexist comments and sadistic nature.

Then the day of Naruto's graduation came. As expected he was pronounced 'Rookie of the Year'. Graduating at the age of five, he had become a Genin slightly earlier than his fellow prodigies Kakashi and Uchiha Itachi he would now be known as the youngest academy graduate ever. Despite requests from some of his senseis to promote him to Chuunin straight away, Sandaime waved it off, saying that Naruto should just prove himself as an active shinobi, just like everyone else.

The new Genin had almost mastered the second of four stages of his father's taijutsu style now. He could now perform Kirameki no jutsu without seals every time and was close to doing the same with his Shunshin no jutsu. Thanks to Kyuubi's constant gift, his chakra capacity had almost quadrupled.

Kakashi was able to teach his student another 12 techniques, this time 4 Doton, 3 Katon, 2 Mizu, 2 Raiton and 1 Sand technique.

Despite her sincerest efforts, Anko still hadn't managed to seduce her 'delicious' trainee or turn him into a sadist but overall they got along fine. She taught him 4 new genjutsu skills and even her Souja Sousai No Jutsu (Double Snake Assassination Technique)

After his graduation, Kakashi and Gai would keep on training his Uzumaki Kenamju taijutsu. Jiraiya, after a lot of begging, promised to teach the kid some of his slightly stronger techniques when he was around. Sandaime had asked him to start looking for members of the Hitomi clan to start teaching Naruto in his other bloodline limit. The aging sannin was also close to releasing his second book: Icha Icha: Attack of the Nymphomaniacs. Kakashi and Anko would occasionally train him in his nin- and genjutsu.

Naruto was put in a Genin team, which existed for two years already but had lost a member due to a promotion after the latest Chuunin exam. His sensei was Hyuuga Hizashi, who still lived as young Hyuuga Hinata's abductor was captured ad lefty alive. His two team mates, Kiba's older sister Inuzuka Hana and Shino's older cousin Aburame Taiko, were somewhat sceptical about the new team member but soon realised that their far younger team mate was a very good addition to their squad.

Because his team mates had been active Genins for some time now, he was able to escape from doing all those tedious D-raked missions. Instead he was regularly sent on more challenging C-rank jobs.

During one, what seemed to be a fairly straightforward mission, things went haywire, turning into a high B-rank mission which forced the young Uzumaki to make his first two kills in order to save his two team mates.

Life wasn't always great….

**A/N**

**Please leave me a review, domo!**


	3. Tests and goodbyes

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto**

**Chapter 3**

Although still kind of bored, Naruto found life as an active shinobi much more interesting than being in the academy. His years of intense training had made him surpass Genin level a while ago but having the opportunity to make use of his skills was in no way worse than sitting in a class listening to things he already knew.

Soon after his graduation, he was given another suit. Since Kakashi argued that he wouldn't need top speed for the first couple of missions and by means of punishment for exposing a peeping Jiraiya, his suit was 10 levels above the last one. Jiraiya spent 2 days in the hospital after he got attacked by a mob of angry women who were alerted by his young student.

He had now completely mastered his Shunshin no jutsu. He was told not to use it yet because of possible assaults. His father had made himself quite the unpopular man when he used this technique to kill over 50 Stone shinobi in no time. Right now, the blonde Genin wasn't strong enough to defend himself against high level enemies yet so it was decided that he shouldn't attract too much attention for the moment.

The perverted hermit was now out of the village, searching for what's left of the family on his student's mother's side. The Hitomi clan lost most of its members in an attack years ago and were now a group of wanderers. Jiraiya wasn't expecting to return anytime soon. Before he left, he gave Naruto instructions for learning his father's Rasengan and two other jutsus.

With the help of Kakashi and Gai, the demon vessel was well on his way with the third stage of the Uzumaki Kenamju taijutsu style. He opted for not using it yet as he preferred to master the complete style first and then combine it with the other two styles he knew and his growing arsenal of jutsus.

The yellow haired prodigy had befriended fellow genius Uchiha Itachi, who had grown increasingly upset with his power obsessed clansmen. Itachi offered to help his young friend in learning some new kunai and shuriken tricks. With Kakashi away on missions more often he was finally asked to step in as Naruto's ninjutsu sensei.

One day, as the two had just finished another tiring training session, they both sat down next to a small lake.

"Ano, Itachi ni-san. What is your family like," Naruto asked his young sensei.

"The Uchiha clan is one of the strongest clans in Konoha, but also the biggest group of morons," he replied as he threw a stone in the water from which smoke was still rising up, an after effect from practicing Katon: Karyuu Endan over the lake.

"Why are you calling your relatives by that name? They are your family!" Naruto angrily exclaimed.

"Naruto, having a family isn't always as great as it seems. I know that's hard for you to understand since you've never know your biological family but believe me, it's true."

From the look on his friend and student's face Itachi saw that the boy was lost. He continued. "My family is completely obsessed with being the strongest. I am the most talented of all of them and therefore they always push me to become stronger and stronger so that one day the can rule Konoha. I'm sick and tired of them, can you imagine that Naruto-kun? Being sick and tired of your own blood?"

Naruto shook his head. Not because he didn't understand Itachi's problems, but because he couldn't believe the behaviour of his family towards him. The two stood up as Naruto decided to speak up once again. "Itachi ni-san, from now on we live our life the way we want to and we follow our own dreams. What is your dream?"

Itachi, surprised by the boy's wise words, thought for a second and then smiled. "My dream is to be happy with the people around me, become a strong shinobi and protect the ones I love."

Both smiled as they walked away. The evening came fast as the wind increased in power.

"Oh, and my wish is to go on a date with your nee-chan, she's hot Naruto!" Itachi said before running away from the killing intent released by the blonde.

"You stay away from Shizune-chan Itachi ni-san. She's too old for you and too good for you. She would kick your lame Uchiha ass and so will I, you better know it!" Naruto yelled while chasing his raven-haired sensei.

Now that he had started active duty for Konoha, Nara Shikaku was called in to teach him a thing or two about the strategic side of being a shinobi. He also groomed the wanna-be Hokage in assessing war simulations and then thinking of a tactic to win. Naruto still often played against his sensei's son Shikamaru, who despite not even having started his academy classes, proved to be an extremely talented tactician. The result was Naruto losing embarrassingly time after time, much to his own frustration.

Naruto spent most of his spare time hanging out with his Shogi partner Shikamaru and his other close friend Akimichi Chouji. Both these boys were due for academy training in a year's time. They had asked their Genin friend to teach them something. Naruto happily showed off his skills and ended up teaching them some basic chakra control exercises. Still, most of their time was spent pulling pranks on others and staring at passing clouds.

Having to endure the constant glares from the villagers, Naruto one day couldn't handle it anymore. He snapped and hospitalised two shop owners who accused him of stealing their goods. When they called him a demon and told him to leave the village to die somewhere else he gave them a beating they'll never forget.

After he barely survived the trashing he'd gotten from his kaa-san, he was handed over to Morino Ibiki, at that time a very talented and aspiring interrogator. He had requested a captured enemy shinobi to try some new techniques on, but was instead given Naruto as Sandaime argued that Ibiki's 'sessions' would help the boy in controlling his temper and keeping his cool in stressful situations.

After an emergency meeting it was decided that Naruto ought to have more contact with children his age. Hyuuga Hizashi suggested using the time he would spend with them smart by maybe teaching them some chakra control like he had done to Shikamaru and Chouji. The plan got accepted by everyone, including Naruto himself and soon he was found teaching Shikamaru, Chouji, Neji, Shino, Hinata and Ino how to use their chakra effectively through walking up trees and on water. Making new friends visibly improved his state of mind as he regained some of his loud personality and started to smile a lot more again.

The events as of late had strengthened Naruto's ultimate desire, to become Hokage so that everyone would acknowledge him. His determination had returned to him and he had thrown himself back into his heavy training.

Outside his missions and teaching his new friends, Itachi continued to help the young boy in learning him ninjutsu of an increasing difficulty. The Rasengan was coming along fine as well. Naruto couldn't train on it as often as he would have liked to but he was now able to perform the first two parts of the technique without using a second hand.

Not everyone was always happy with his returning 'normal' character. One day, Naruto used one of the Uzumaki sealing techniques he recently learned to put an invisible seal on the door to the Hokage's office. The Third, who was reading some papers when he walked through the door was caught off guard and was knocked over. Konoha's number one prankster was subsequently punished through a new, extra heavy weighted suit, a visit from his big friend Ibiki and pink hair for two weeks.

Word had come from Jiraiya that he had found the remaining members of the Hitomi clan. They agreed on taking their new family member in for a while to teach him their techniques on the condition that he would come to them and travel with them for the time being. The perverted hermit would return to the village shortly after the upcoming Chuunin exams, which would be held in the Hidden Village of Waterfall three months from now. He and Naruto would then go back to see the Hitomi

The thought of learning about his second bloodline limit exited the young boy, who was told by his Jounin sensei Hizashi that his team would be going to the Waterfall village to take part in the exam.

Sandaime found it time to step down as the Hokage after years of loyal service. Reluctantly, Tsunade accepted his request to become Godaime and leave the hospital to her apprentice Shizune.

Not much later Godaime and her predecessor called in Itachi. News had reached them that Konoha traitor Orochimaru planned on attacking the Uchiha clan. When everyone sat down in the Hokage's office, Itachi opened his mouth.

"Hokage-sama, I understand why Orochimaru wants to attack us. I believe he's after our eyes, isn't that right?"

Tsunade simply nodded as she spoke. "Although it seems suicide to attack a whole clan by yourself, it's still a sannin we're talking about. He's known for his resourcefulness so he's probably figured out a way to pull it off.

The third took over. "We have heard that he has joined a group called Akatsuki, an organisation filled with S-class missing-nins. He might have been able to have them helping him, but I can assure you that he's found a way. If it's the eyes he's after he will leave someone alive. My only guess can be your brother Sasuke. We've been told that he has even more potential than you."

"We know how you feel about most of your family members. In all honesty their behaviour has pushed me on the brink of taking a few of them out myself." Tsunade spoke with clenched fists. "However, not every Uchiha is bad and we can't afford to lose one of the strongest clan's in the village to an enemy."

"Therefore we will send you off on a permanent mission to join Akatsuki as a spy together with Kisame, a spy from Hidden Mist. Try to find out about that group and see what you can do about that awful snake." The Hokage finished as she loosened her grip on her chair.

As it turned out, Orochimaru's attacked couldn't be prevented. Soon after Itachi had joined Akatsuki, the snake sannin was forced to leave as he feared the power of the young Uchiha. He had indeed planned on using his group mates there to help him in killing off the clan but was now forced to use a new kinjutsu he was developing, Kuchiyose no jutsu: Edo Tensei. He disguised his warriors as Uchiha clansmen and killed them off one by one. When Sasuke came home late from his shuriken training he saw, what he thought to be, Itachi killing his parents.

With Itachi leaving the village for a long time, Naruto was without a ninjutsu sensei once again. It was decided that once Sandaime had completely handed over his role as the Hokage to Tsunade, he would combine his job as advisor to the new leader with the prospecting role of training the blond Genin in the art of ninjutsu. He had many reasons for taking this responsibility.

Equipped with knowledge of over a thousand jutsus and having a track record of delivering top notch shinobi, there probably wasn't a better teacher than him. Besides that, he saw this as an opportunity to retaliate for the countless pranks he had to endure up until now.

Also, having been Hokage for so long started to wear his aging body down as he did not have the chance to train that much over the years. As an attack from his former student was a realistic thing to occur, he wanted to be prepared for him to do what he failed to accomplish many years ago. Training with Naruto would benefit both.

A more personal reason to train the young boy was that he was afraid that he would not live long enough to pass on his ape summoning contract to his grandson Konohamaru. As he was the last carrier of the contract he needed to pass it on to someone, who in turn could pass the torch when his grandson was ready for it. He made his new student swear to do exactly that after which Naruto sighed the contract with his blood.

Before this happened, Sarutobi summoned Enma while Naruto called Gamabunta forth. The two tribe leaders were asked to accept each other and to work together when the time came. The toad boss quickly agreed, though Enma, proud as he is, demanded that the young boy proved his worth first. He was not allowed to summon any ape until he was able to defeat the former Hokage in an all-taijutsu fight.

Naruto had no other choice but to accept reluctantly. Soon the two were training regularly. They would have daily ninjutsu sessions as well as occasional sparring battles. Naruto had been complaining about not being able to train his Uzumaki taijutsu style enough as he was not allowed to use it outside Konoha. Sarutobi though provided him with just the opportunity he needed to hone his skills further. At the same time, the old man had found someone to train with to regain some of his former glory. This way both were kept happy.

Naruto had been whining for a while about not getting any interesting missions. The boy had grown more and more arrogant about his own abilities. He argued that those 'stupid guarding missions for weak Genins, not a talented shinobi like him'.

After a while, Tsunade gave in and sent his team off on a B-rank mission. They were to head off to a small merchant village where news had gotten through that a squad from the Stone Village were on their way to assassinate a wealthy mining entrepreneur, whose successful business had cost Stone a lot of money.

The mission proved to be a turning point in Naruto's behaviour. He was getting used to getting things his way and had taken his lucky status of having the best senseis for granted. He slacked off during training and sometimes didn't even show up. He had become the type of person he used to hate…

…cocky and full of himself.

The mission was a disaster as Stone had sent a squad, comprising of three Chuunin and three Jounin. During the battle that came, the three Genin managed to defeat all the Chuunin and even one Jounin, but while Hizashi was fighting off the enemy's leader, the remaining Jounin killed Naruto's team mate Aburame Taiko and beat his other companion Inuzuka Hana and himself to an inch from their own deaths. Had Hizashi not defeated his opponent before sealing the tenketsu point of the attacking Stone shinobi, Naruto and Hana would have been dead now.

Back in Konoha, Naruto and his remaining team mate spent a few days in the hospital recovering from their wounds. Thinking back on his recent behaviour, he realised what a fool he had been and that he really needed to make some changes to his attitude. He swore to himself this would never happen again. He had to protect his precious people at all costs and show his sincere appreciation to all his senseis for putting so much time in him.

As soon as he was released from the hospital, he went to his favourite equipment shop and bought himself a new weighted suit, fifteen units above the one he was wearing. Tsunade was very surprised to see that her son, for the first time ever, used his money to buy something other than ramen or birthday presents for herself and Shizune.

To make sure he would get used to his new suit, he asked Hana's canine partner Toroko to chase him for three hours every morning when he was running around the village, allowing him to bite him if he was caught. Toroko happily accepted and soon turned out to be quite the pain in the ass, in every meaning.

One night, he took all his teachers, along with his family and remaining team mate to a nice sushi restaurant.

In tears he apologised for his attitude and swore to train harder than ever before so he could protect them from then on.

With Kyuubi's help, he reduced his sleeping requirements to only one night per week, during which he asked to be toughened up mentally by the great Youkai. Between six and nine in the morning he would run around the village to increase his speed. Then after breakfast he practised his arsenal of jutsus until twelve when he ate something. Until four, Gai would help him in his taijutsu training, followed by either Anko or Sarutobi teaching him more jutsus. At eight, he had some more food before seeing Nara Shikaku for strategic training and battle simulation.

At night, when the rest of Konoha was sound asleep, the boy would work on his new jutsus and train his chakra control by moving large boulders. He was to keep this regime up until it was one week before it was time to move to Hidden Waterfall for the Chuunin exam.

During this week, Naruto and Iko were introduced to their new team mate. Yakshiro Onane. They spent the week working on their team skills as they would definitely need them.

When they arrived at Hidden Waterfall they were told that the exam would have only two parts. During the first test, they had to protect a carriage from three enemy Chuunin. Because they had been together for only one week, the three found it tough to use their combined skills as their communication and team work wasn't all that. The test was designed in a way that two of the Chuunin would attack one of the Genin Chuunin, while the remaining Chuunin the Genin's team mates busy.

It wasn't until the end when Naruto used his Tajyuu Kage Bunshin No Jutsu (Multiple Shadow Clone Technique) to even the odds that they were able to gain some ground and hold the fortress. When the hour was finished, they were finally told they passed the first test.

Immediately, preliminary battles were held to narrow down the amount of Chuunin hopefuls to 24. During these battles Onane, still tired from the first test, was defeated easily, leaving only Naruto and Hana on course for promotion.

During these finals, 2 weeks later, individual skills were more important, enough for both Naruto and Hana to turn Chuunin as they both showed that they possessed the qualities needed for this middle rank. The blonde Uzumaki even went on to the final in which he lost to someone with much more experience and some really freaky jutsus. He was forced to retire after he was caught in a genjutsu which made him feel the pain of his death over and over again. When it was released he had no strength left to stand up, let alone fight.

A grand total of six new Chuunin returned to Konoha. After all the celebrating was finished, all were put into new squads except for Naruto. Jiraiya was set to return in a month's time to take the boy to his long lost family. He was supposed to arrive earlier but after accepting an invitation to open a brand new hot spring resort in Wave Country, he decided to hang around a little longer to 'inspect the facilities a bit further'. Until his return, Naruto was told to keep on training.

Not letting his recent promotion get to his head, he frantically started his tough training regime again, with the exception of allowing himself three nights of sleep now. During two of those nights, Kyuubi would continue to train his psyche while during the third night he was given a break from it all so he could sleep in peace.

He would still run from six till nine in the morning. Then he ate something and trained his family taijutsu with Gai. At one, Anko would train him for two hours followed by Sarutobi, with whom he trained on his ninjutsu and had the occasional sparring match.

Then from six till eight he would run again before heading off to see his family and friends. During the nights he stayed up he would train his body as Jiraiya had left instructions for him to get himself as physically strong as possible.

When, in the morning it was time to start running again, his hairy tenant would give him a boost to wake him up and revitalise him.

Sometimes he would train his friends, who could now walk up trees and were learning to stand on water now.

Naruto every now and then bought some flowers from the Yamanaka flower shop to surprise his mother and sister, who started to like the boy's changes more and more.

The days went by quickly. Naruto found that his strength had increased dramatically. Sarutobi proposed a small exam to measure his current level so that when he returned they could assess his growth by doing the same exam again.

With Kyuubi constantly replenishing his chakra, Naruto was asked to perform every jutsu he knew, even the most insignificant one. It took him a while, but when he finished, he had achieved an impressive 57 mastered techniques, one of which caused his male audience to lose a lot of blood.

Then he had to perform his skills again, though this time without refilling his chakra. Starting at the least consuming jutsu he went on to perform 32 series of hand seals before finally losing consciousness. Sarutobi was proud to see the boy being able to do so many jutsus, even more because the long list already included some decent elemental techniques.

After regaining his strength he was to have a taijutsu only fight with the former Hokage. Kakashi would time how long the boy could hold his opponent off. Seven hellish minutes later, Naruto's legs were about to give in, when Sarutobi finished the job using Konohagakure Hiden Taijutsu Ougi: Sennen Goroshi (Hidden Leaf Supreme Taijutsu Technique: One-Thousand Years of Pain), which Kakashi had copied because he believed it could always come in handy.

The night Jiraiya returned to the village, all went out for a meal. The perverted hermit was found jaw-dropping when he heard his apprentice could now create a complete Rasengan in each of his hands at the same time. The test results were also quite shocking to him as he'd never imagined his former sensei to perform such a degrading technique. Soon everyone was laughing and saying he should be the last person on earth to complain about something degrading as being degrading was the toad summoner's motto.

The young Uzumaki was told to travel light as he would have to wear his new family's outfit anyway once he got there. He was also ordered to leave his weighted suit at home as they by now quite thick suit made him look chubby. Instead, Jiraiya promised to teach him a technique through which he could use his own chakra to increase his gravitational force without looking like his Akimichi friend.

The next day, a tearful goodbye took place. Tsunade had a hard time letting her son go. Despite the fact that he hadn't even reached his seventh's birthday yet, he had matured far beyond his age.

As he walked through the village gates, he turned around and looked at the former Hokage. "When I get back you'd better be ready for me Sarutobi-sensei. I will feel no remorse in beating up an old man!"

"You do that my boy," was his sensei's reply. "Enma is waiting for you and getting impatient. He asks me if I've made a mistake letting a weakling like you sign his tribe's contract."

The respondent showed him his trademark foxy grin and turned his back on the village. "Come one boy, tine to go," Jiraiya said. "Your family awaits you."

**A/N**

Please review


	4. Long lost family

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto**

**Chapter 4**

It was just after midday as two figures travelled towards the border the Fire Country. The scorching sun beamed through the grand trees of the forest. The smaller of the two, a boy not even seven years old yet, appeared to be sunk deep in his thoughts. On one hand he was happy to finally meet his biological family and learn their techniques, though on the other hand he hated the thought of having to leave his beloved Konoha for what seemed to be quite a while.

The longest he had ever been away from home was the month it took him to travel back and forth the Hidden Waterfall village during the Chuunin exam. He knew this time he'd be away much longer as he didn't expect to master a completely new bloodline limit within such a small amount of time.

As his mind returned back to reality he looked up to his guardian, who just jumped to the next tree branch.

"Ano Ero-sennin, how long do you think we'll be away from Konoha?"

The toad master turned his head slightly. "Expect to be gone for at least a year kid." Hearing this brought back the sombre look on his face. Jiraiya continued. "First we will see your family and stay with them for a while until you have learned everything about their techniques. I've requested to your kasaan if I can take you around the shinobi villages for a while so you can learn more about besides Konoha."

When the words 'bloodline limit' were mentioned, Naruto brightened up a little as he tried to get his sensei's attention again. "What do you know about this bloodline limit?"

The toad sannin pondered his student's question for a second before replying. "I think it's best to leave the explanation to your family. I will tell you that I think you are going to love it. I don't know the details but from what I've heard it's very powerful."

Being the eager boy he is, the caused a big fox grin on the boy's face. "Sugoi Ero-sennin! Soon I will be able to kick your perverted ass and there's nothing you can do about it!"

Annoyed, Jiraiya stopped in his tracks, causing Naruto to crash into his sensei and fall down on the floor.

"Hey, what did you do that for old man?" Jiraiya cracked his knuckles before speaking up. "You know Naruto, if I kill you here right now, no one will know it was me. That way you will never be able to defeat me…."

Naruto swallowed. Although he didn't appreciate his mentor's pervertedness, he was even more wary of his serious moments.

"Gomen Jiraiya-sensei. Even I realise that it will take me many years before I can even think about being on the level of the great toad summoner Jiraiya." He had always known that the old man was very sensitive to this kind of tactic. Soon, a smile appeared on his face as he helped his student up.

"Good you little brat, I knew you had it in you. From now on I expect this kind of behaviour from you. If not, you will meet my true wrath," he finished as Naruto noticed as mixture of extreme sadism and pervertedness on the man's face. "Whatever Ero-sennin," he said half-heartedly while jumping back on the tree. An annoyed Jiraiya followed his example and soon the two were on their way again.

A few hours later the two reached the border of the Fire Country. They sat down for a short break when Jiraiya told Naruto that he should take of his forehead protector as he didn't want to attract unwanted attention from enemy shinobi. He was also told not to use any of his Uzumaki techniques for the time being until he got stronger. Naruto reluctantly agreed to both as they started to move again.

"We should hurry up," Naruto was told. "I arranged for them to meet up with us on the border of Wind Country and Earth Country." Naruto nodded as he understood the underlying message. "We don't want to keep my family waiting."

The rest of the journey went by fast. On their way, they ran into a gang of bandits who had mistaken them for some weak targets. Naruto quickly dispersed of them as he showed off his new and improved Rasengan, much to the admiration of his sensei who made a mental note to learn that himself when he was alone.

Four days later, they reached the border between the countries of Wind and Earth. The area looked deserted and barren, a mixture between the former's windy desert and the latter's rocky layout, creating a place no sane person would want to live. Everything seemed dead or dying. The wind caused the sand from the desert to fly through the air and torture the people that walked through it.

The two Konoha shinobi decided to head for a nearby cave area to wait for the Hitomi clan as they were able to scan the whole area from over there.

As they sat down to rest and eat something, they suddenly felt the air tightening around them and found it hard to move. "Fuujin: Air Solidifying Seal" they heard coming from inside the cave.

Naruto felt his heartbeat shooting up now that he was completely stuck and unable to defend himself. When he looked to the man next to him, he could only see a smile on his face as he spoke.

"I guess you found us first…….. Amato-sama."

Three men approached the trapped duo. The one standing in the middle spoke. "You're getting sloppy Jiraiya-san, we could have killed you both if we had hostile intentions."

Embarrassed, the older of the two looked at his feat, searching for a way out of this. "It was the brat's fault Amato-sama. He……." He gave up as he knew there was no way out of this.

Amato smiled as he released the jutsu. He reached out his hand towards a very confused Naruto. "You must be young Uzumaki Naruto. We have heard a lot about you my boy," the older man said, carefully taxing the nervous six-year old.

Naruto finally decided to grab his hand as he stood up, starting to understand who these mysterious people were.

"Forgive me for the rather unfriendly welcome," Amato explained. "You have to understand that my people have grown very careful since the incident. .

It was like a light bulb was turned on inside Naruto's brain. "Y..Yo…You are.." when he was interrupted. " Yes boy, we are what's left of the Hitomi clan. My name is Hitomi Amato. These two men are my nephews Hiro and Kozu."

Naruto gave a slight bow to the two men when Amato moved closer to him. "Let me have a look at you," he said as he inspected the kid, who was told by Jiraiya to stay quiet until he was accepted.

"I see he has my daughter's chin and hands." Jiraiya replied. "Yes Amato-sama, though it seems the rest of his looks have come from his father."

Amato snorted. "Well, that seems to be the first time he was able to get the upper hand in anything that concerned Akane. I sure hope the kid is blessed with her personality."

Naruto, confused and exited by what he just heard, chose to speak up. "Ano Amato-sama, you mentioned me looking like your daughter. Doe….Does t-that mean…."

Amato gave him his warmest smile. "Yes Naruto-kun, your mother was my daughter. I am your grandfather…."

Naruto couldn't hold back his tears anymore when he heard these magical words. The hurled himself forward towards his newfound grandfather and started to cry uncontrollably. For a moment, Amato didn't know what to do. The Hitomi weren't particularly known for their affectionate behaviour.

He soon regained his composure, knelt down to the boy who was still hugging his leg and gave him a firm hug. Smiling, he thought to himself _"maybe this boy can change us for the better. I feel I haven't lost you completely Akane…"_

Shortly after, the two arrivals were led further into the cave. They were greeted by eleven other members of the clan. There was Amato's younger sister Yuriko, her two daughters Miho and Tomomi. Miho's husband had died during the attack years ago. Tomomi's husband Atamaru was still alive. Together they had two sons, Makona and Hide, and a daughter, called Yumi. The children were below the age of 5.

The remaining members of the clan were Atamaru's older brother Hiroyasu, his wife Lati and their two children Tado and Maru, who were both in their twenties.

After everybody was introduced to one another, Naruto had a good look at his family. He found that his grandfather, although already in his fifties, looked most similar to him. He noticed everyone wore the same outfit. Violet shorts or trousers and virgin white tops. Some of them also wore an emerald with violet jacked, carrying their family's crest on the back. It looked like three lines of spiralling air waves forming a triangular shape. The inside of the triangle had a heavenly light-blue colour. Most clan members had blonde hair, though not by far as blond as the new addition to their family. Their faces showed sharp features, indicating a strict training regime.

That evening, all sat down in a circle around a large bonfire to eat. Some of the men had gone hunting earlier that day and managed to bring back some rabbits and birds. During the meal, Amato told the two guests about what happened to clan.

They originally came from the Hidden Village of Air, a shinobi village that always maintained impartial in inter-village affairs. His clan used to be the rightful leader of the village. This changed when the village council decided to sire with Leaf traitor Orochimaru. Amato's father, at that time leader, opposed against this and was challenged by the snake sannin, a fight which killed him.

Fearing their lives, the rest of the clan fled from the village and travelled around. Some months later, they were found and attacked by Orochimaru who used Edo Tensei to summon ten of the strongest members of the clan who had already passed away, who killed the whole group.

When the members who weren't present at the time of the attack returned and found their clansmen dead, they decided to split up and wander around in smaller groups to avoid more killings. Every now and then they would send their summons to meet up and exchange messages. It wasn't until just before Jiraiya found them they had found it save to regroup and travel together again. They swore never to return to the villager until they had broken all bonds with the bastard snake.

Then Amato explained that they knew Akane had gotten pregnant from the Fourth. After news of Kyuubi's attack, which killed both the Fourth and Akane, had reached them, they could do nothing but t assume that Naruto was dead as well. Even then, they couldn't risk exposing themselves by going to Konoha and risk another slaughter.

Since then they've been wandering around, not staying at the same place for more than a few weeks. They used four layers of high level genjutsu to conceal their hideouts so that it could be used again in the future.

When the night fell, everyone went to sleep. Naruto was told his training would start the next day. His sleep wouldn't come quickly though as he tried to process the new information that he had received that day. He silently promised his family that one day he would be strong enough to kill Orochimaru and have them return to their village.

The next day Jiraiya told his student he had to leave for a while to check up on some rumours that had come to him through his contacts. They agreed to meet up in six months time in the Cloud Country. After he left, Amato and Hiro took the young boy to a secluded area to commence his training.

"Naruto, I heard from Jiraiya-san that you don't know about your Hitomi bloodline limit yet, right?"

The boy just nodded as his grandfather continued. " It has four aspects to it. First of all we have the ability to perform one-handed seals. Few other shinobi are capable of this and even then they can only do this for relatively low level jutsus or techniques involving their own bloodline limit. I believe the Uchiha clan from your village can do that."

Naruto felt like jumping in the air, hearing he would be able to do this but forced himself to stay calm and listen.

Hiro took over from the old clan leader. "The Uchiha's sharingan eye can copy one handed seals, but not from us," he said as he performed three one-handed seals after which his hands started to be surrounded by white chakra.

"When using our 'Blind Aura no jutsu', no one will be able to copy any of our skills or even anticipate our next jutsu by analysing the pattern of the chakra we mould for the next technique as they simply can't see it."

All this good news became too much for Naruto to shit up. "SUGOI!" he screamed, earning a glare from his uncle while his grandfather couldn't help but smile.

When Naruto sat down again, Hiro went on. "When the time is right for you, you will get a summoning contract from our family. In your case this will be the contract for the Wild Lion, King of the Tundra tribe. This used to be your mother's summon. The tribe leader Surumoto is a tough one but as he was fond of your mother you have a good chance to get accepted by him as well.

Naruto couldn't believe his luck as he jumped around like a drunken kangaroo. When he had finally calmed down again, his grandfather spoke up again.

"Another trait of our ability is being able to fully conceal your chakra. Haven't you noticed that none of us show any sign of chakra?"

The young blonde hadn't given it much thought but now that it was mentioned, he did know something was missing, but had shrugged it off in all his excitement.

"This ability proves to be very useful as your enemy will find it extra difficult to locate you. We are not sure whether or not you can get rid of Kyuubi's chakra as well because this is the first time someone from our clan has a second source of chakra, but we'll find out as soon as we train on this."

Again Hiro took over. "Our clan also has its won taijutsu style, called Dance of the Diamond. It doesn't directly involve our bloodline limit, but used in accordance with it, it becomes extra powerful. This style involves high impact strikes to the enemy's body. We harden our own body to its maximum through extensive training so we can focus less on defending and blocking, but instead execute our next attack faster, therefore surprising the opponent."

"NANI? You just let other kick your ass so you can hit them faster? What is that for stupid tactic?" Naruto yelled angrily. He couldn't believe they expected him just to take hits so he could surprise his opponent.

"Quite boy!" Hiro was getting very annoyed now. "When your body has been trained for this style, it will be no problem anymore. The only catch is that you harden your body as much as possible." Then a sadistic smirk appeared on Hiro's face. "I believe we can help you with that."

Naruto found it hard to swallow. He wasn't sure if he going to be able to pull this off, earning a loud growl from inside his body. His grandfather saw the doubt on his face and knew exactly what to say to motivate him.

"ARE YOU A COWARD BRAT? ARE WE WAISTING OUR TIME ON A MERE WEAKLING?" he screamed of the top of his lungs.

Hearing these words, steam had started to come out of Naruto's ears. "NOBODY CALLS UZUMAKI NARUTO A WEAKLING!"

"Well, prove it kid," Hiro added to his anger. "I WILL ACCOMPLISH EVERY TASK YOU GIVE ME AND I WILL NOT TAKE BACK MY WORD. THAT IS MY NINDO! I AM THE FUTURE HOKAGE OF KONOHA, DON'T YOU DARE HOLDING BACK ON ME OLD MEN!"

Both men could do nothing but laugh as Amato thought. _"I knew this would work. His faster reacted the exact same way when I questioned his loyalty towards my daughter."_

"Then consider it a deal. From now on we will teach you in our family abilities. We will start by teaching you to hide your chakra because at the moment your presence is endangering all of us. When you have done this we can see what can be done with Kyuubi's chakra."

"Then it's arranged. From now on we will teach you in our family's abilities. We'll start by teaching you to hide your chakra because right now your presence is endangering us. After that, we will see how much of Kyuubi's chakra you can hide."

He continued. "When this is done, we will split the days in four parts. From six till eleven in the morning we will train your body to become stringer and able to withstand more pain. During the afternoon, some of us will go hunting. When you have obtained your summon, you will have to join them occasionally. When you stay at the camp, some of the other will help you in converting your jutsus into one-handed seals."

Amato paused to catch his breath. "From four in the afternoon onwards, we train you in our taijutsu style. After that you will train by yourself. I have been told that Jiraiya gave you 5 scrolls withy two of his stringer ninjutsu and three Uzumaki sealing techniques. If you Uzumaki are the sealing masters you claim to be you shall be delighted to learn some of the sealing skills from Hidden Air as well."

"During your stay here, I expect you to practise these techniques as well as your Uzumaki taijutsu style. I promised Jiraiya that by the time he comes back you have mastered all of them and like you I don't go back on my word either. You will call us sensei during your training."

Naruto bowed his head in understanding. "Hai Amato-sensei, I think you will be pleasantly surprised to see my own training standards. I don't intend to disappoint my new family."

Amato smiled at his grandson. "Good, if you train as hard as you claim to do, you will master your Hitomi bloodline limit. It is only then that you will be allowed to go by your full name Uzumaki Hitomi Naruto."

Naruto stood up and nodded to Amato and Hiro. "Also I have to train extra hard as I have to defeat a certain old man back in Konoha to earn the greatest of all summons."

Amato asked Naruto to explain himself further. When he was told that Emna, the ape king had demanded that he beat Sandaime in a taijutsu fight to earn his tribe's allegiance, he turned to Hiro. "If this kid has to defeat the third Hokage of Konoha when he comes back, we have a lot of work to do."

He looked at his grandson, who was leaning on a rock, lazily looking at the scenery. "On the other hand, if he was chosen to summon the apes, he must be an extraordinary child."

He signalled Naruto to come to them. "Kid, if you want to defeat the one they call 'The Professor' we'd better get started. That man is nowhere near your current level." All Naruto did was assume his nice guy pose, causing his onlookers to sweat drop.

"It's a good thing he left that village for a while. He seems to have picked up this really disturbing habit. I wonder who he got that from."

Six months passed quickly as a large group of fishermen approached Cloud Country. The group showed absolutely no signs of having the chakra and stamina of full-fledged shinobi.

The Hitomi clan used Henge to disguise themselves as poor workers to avoid unwanted attention. They were two days late, so they would have to start looking for the toad sennin.

It was Naruto who suggested heading for the hot springs. When they arrived there, it didn't take them long to find an old man giggling from behind a large tree, while taking notes and looking through his telescope.

Naruto sneaked up to his mentor and could hear the man mumbling." Yeeeees little girls, run, jump….do it all. Oh I love this country. The ladies are delicious."

Jiraiya had no idea someone was right behind him until it was too late. His young apprentice performed Sennen Goroshi on his backside, making him flying through the air and falling in the ladies section of the hot spring. Soon PEEEEEEERVEEEEEEEERT could be heard all over the country as Jiraiya was severely beaten up by around fifty very angry naked women.

After he was finished channelling his anger on Naruto, the whole group headed towards one of the Hitomi hideouts in the vicinity. They soon sat together catching up on the past six months.

Jiraiya refused to reveal why he had to contact his informants but was more than interested in the boy's progress. When Amato finished explaining what his grandson was capable of now, the perverted hermit couldn't help but to be very impressed.

Naruto had by now completely mastered the Uzumaki Kenamju taijutsu style and was able to incorporate it with his other two styles from Konoha along with his Kirameki and Shunshin no jutsu. He was currently working on using other jutsus with it as well.

He had finished the jutsus given to him by Jiraiya and picked up a few Hidden Air skills. Also he could now perform all his jutsus using only on hand. He was practising doing two jutsus at the same time but found this extremely difficult. He hard a very hard time concentrating as he needed to divide his attention on two things at the same time.

Kyuubi's chakra turned impossible to fully conceal after all. Naruto was able to reveal only the amount of chakra equal to a weak Genin, but going further proved impossible.

He had learned three quarters of the Dance of the Diamond style, but according to Hiro he was useless with it for the simple reason that his body wasn't strong enough yet.

After learning his summon, he often joined the men on their hunting trips, subsequently improving his tracking and stealth skills. Also by using his chakra as a weighted suit he had gotten used to releasing the exact same amount of chakra constantly. His speed had improved a lot because of this.

Looks wise, Naruto changed tremendously. His hair had grown out, almost identical to his father. His body was now slightly toned due to his family's merciless training regime.

His old clothes were gone. Instead he wore violet and orange trousers, his family's virgin white top and an emerald with orange jacket. The back of his top and jacket were decorated with his own personal crest, He had included his Uzumaki swirl into the Hitomi triangular shape with the same heavenly light-blue colour inside. Around the three sides of the triangle, he had positioned nine red fox tails, evenly divided over the sides, representing his allegiance to Kyuubi.

It was decided that Jiraiya would join the family on their travels for the next six months, although he would have to leave every now and then to catch upon his 'work'. The coming period Naruto would train on mastering his Hitomi taijutsu style most of the time, together with making his body stronger. As soon as this was finished, it had to be integrated into his combination of other styles. Jiraiya would teach him a few new techniques. He would also exchange some jutsus with the Hitomi family as he had become very interested in some of their skills.

When it turned night, the group went to sleep, with the exception of a certain young blonde who wanted to proceed with his training as soon as possible after the long trip.

**PLEASE REVIEW**


	5. Making new friends along the way

**I don't own Naruto**

Thanks for all the reviews. I'm glad you like the story. I just want to make something clear. Many people have commented on the fast pace of the story. It will be like this until Naruto has reached the tender age of twelve. From then on, it will settle down and be a lot more descriptive; also containing more battles and dialogues. Until then, please bare with it. I'm using so many chapters to set things up because I want to make it clear what his skills and background are like.

Anyway, on with the story…

**Chapter 5**

Six months passed quickly and the time for Naruto to leave had come. It was a difficult moment for all. He had become very close to his family. The family had accepted their new member and he managed to bring some happiness into their existence.

Surprisingly, Jiraiya didn't really want to leave either. Over the past period he and Amato's younger sister Yuriko got much closer to each other. At first her brother wasn't all too happy about his sister being with a pervert such as the toad sannin, but he didn't want to deny his sister the love she had to go without for so long. Also, he couldn't look beyond the fact that her lover was good to her and proved himself to be a very powerful shinobi, strong enough to protect her.

Once Naruto and Yuriko had whipped their abundant tears, the two Konoha shinobi waved a final goodbye as they set off. Even though the young boy was sad, the thought of his family visiting him in his own village comforted him. He had begged them for a long time until they agreed to come and see him there. They agreed to come once he was able to summon Emna. The Hitomi clan had heard a lot about the Ape king and really wanted to meet him.

While travelling towards the Hidden Grass village, Naruto thought back of the events of the past year. After completing his training he was officially sworn in as a member of the Hitomi clan henceforth being called Uzumaki Hitomi Naruto from that day onwards.

He underwent the traditional rites that came with his inauguration. As part of this he was given a tattoo on his right shoulder, a kanji representing the word 'honour'.

The ceremony took place two weeks prior to his departure. He could now call himself a rightful master of the Hitomi bloodline limit as he had proved his worth in a fight against Hiro during which he was only allowed to use his Hitomi bloodline limit and subsequent fighting style. Although he was beaten easily by his uncle, the skill he showed impressed everyone as his loss could be explained by his relative inexperience with the techniques and the fact that his body was still developing as the boy only turned seven years old shortly before the end of his training.

Jiraiya understood why his young student was quiet. It is of course not every day that you have to leave your family for a few years after having to grow up without them for most of your life. When he thought of Naruto's recent growth he could only be very proud of his blonde student. He knew that the child next to him wouldn't be able to defeat the former Hokage yet, though hurting him shouldn't be would not be an impossible feat anymore.

Besides mastering the Hitomi bloodline limit, his student also managed to learn another ten Hidden Air jutsus. Jiraiya, by exchanging his knowledge with the clan, learned another ten skills, which the two of them would now exchange.

Furthermore, the young Uzumaki Hitomi finished the jutsus Jiraiya had given him. All that was left now for the sannin were his strongest techniques and some high class sealing techniques. He was well aware that Naruto was not ready for those yet and he didn't want to teach him all his skills as he wanted his student to develop his own style rather than being a copy of him.

It was decided that until they would return to Konoha, Naruto would need to get as much real life experience as possible with his combined taijutsu style and his jutsus, though only when the sannin was around to protect him from any possible danger. There was always a risk that an enemy of the Hitomi clan would recognise the techniques and use the young boy to get to the rest of the family.

On rare occasions, Naruto would be allowed to train his Uzumaki bloodline limit as he still needed time to further it and merge it with his other skills into one unique fighting style.

They had been on heir way for three days now. It wouldn't be long until they would reach the Hidden Grass village. It was night already as the two had stopped and set up camp. They sat down around a small fire both eating a dear they managed to kill with the help of Naruto's summon. The sky was clear and bright, with thousands of stars watching over them. They had opted for a place at the foot of a small mountain, remote and covered giving them the desired protection.

Naruto still hadn't spoken much as his mind was obviously occupied with thought about his family. Naruto noticed his sensei looking at him and chose to break the silence. He asked his sensei about the upcoming time, what to expect from each village they would visit.

"Each shinobi village has it's own characteristics. Most of them are known for a particular style and the type of jutsus they often use," Jiraiya explained. "Take the Hidden Mist village for example. Their shinobi tend to specialise in stealth. They use a lot of water-based techniques as that is their signature element."

He continued. "On the other hand you have Stone shinobi, who are known for having the greatest amount of physical power out of all the villages. Their preferred element is earth."

He sighed briefly before speaking up again. "People from Hidden Grass, the village we're heading for now, are more into sneaky ways of attacking enemies. They specialise in poisons and traps and use a lot of living elements such as trees and grass into their arsenal of techniques."

Naruto turned to his sensei. "Ano, Ero-sennin", what are we Konoha shinobi known for?" Jiraiya smiled to the boy. "Well, first of all we use a lot of fire techniques. Unlike many of the other villages we don't really have a specialisation, but if you want me to single us out in a particular way, I'd say we are the most versatile and cunning out of all the villages."

Naruto looked up to Jiraiya. "So we're strong right?"

The toad master sat back and looked at the stars. "Yes my boy. Some say we're the strongest village of all. My say on that is that it's probably because of your kasaan, the Third and me. Other villages fear us. We just happened to have had an extremely talented generation but we're getting older now so the village needs new strong shinobi like you and your friend Itachi, although non one knows what will happen to him. We can't afford to lose another genius like Orochimaru."

"We won't Ero-sennin, Itachi ni-san will never betray Konoha, I'm sure!" Naruto replied with his traditional enthusiasm. Jiraiya ruffled through the boy's hair. "I hope so Naruto, I really hope so……."

Naruto recognised the look on his sensei's face. He'd seen it before when the aging man though about his former team mate. He quickly changes the subject.

"So, what's the plan for the coming period pervert?" he said with a giant grin on his face.

Jiraiya was pulled from his thoughts instantly and scowled his apprentice, although he knew why the boy said it. In fact he was happy he did that sometimes as it prevented him from being in a sour mood all the time.

"Well, I think I should stop teaching you my techniques for now. There aren't many left anyway and I don't want you to turn into a fighting copy of me. You're going to have to create your own style son."

This caused Naruto to have a sad look on his face. "Hey, don't worry." Jiraiya tried to cheer him up. "You'll still have the chance to pick up techniques along the way. That's the whole aim of the upcoming year, I want you to know about every village and that includes using their jutsus." Happy to see a smile returning on the boy's face, he continued. "You need to become as versatile as possible if you want to become Hokage, or are you not strong enough for that?" he teasingly spoke.

"DON'T CALL ME WEAK OLD MAN, I WILL BECOME HOKAGE SO SHUT YOUR PERVERTED MOUTH BEFORE I KICK YOUR OLD ASS!"

"_You sure are predictable in your answers Naruto, hehe…"_ Jiraiya thought, proud at himself for influencing the boy so easily.

"Good, so will learn as much as you can from each village so in the future you cannot be surprised by the way your enemy attacks as you then know how to handle it."

When asked how long they would be travelling for, Jiraiya said that he intended to stay on the road for about another year and a half before coming back to Konoha, staying in each village for a couple of months, long enough for his student to pick up some of their skills.

Some time went by and the pair had been travelling for almost a year now. The two had visited the Hidden Villages of Grass, Rain, Stone and Waterfall. Now they were on their way to Sand, where the Kazekage himself had invited the two to come over and stay at his manor.

Over the years he and Jiraiya had become good friends. The Sand leader could be counted as one of the sannin's biggest fans. Word had reached him that the next issue in the perverted book series would be coming out soon. He was determined to be the first to receive it so he figured that if the author was in his house, he'd stand a good change of having this honour.

During his travels, Naruto managed to significantly improve his taijutsu skills. Jiraiya had called in some favours from a couple of old friends to enable his student to practice his combined taijutsu technique on them. Everything was now successfully integrated into one style. Fighting against his sensei's friends, who were all very strong, he became more and more effective with it.

In the Grass village, the boy learned to recognise some commonly used poisons and was now able to produce a quick antidote for them. On the other hand, for some unknown reason he found himself unable to pick up any of their jutsus, much to his own aggravation. After a while, he was forced to let it be and instead concentrate on the things he could learn instead.

Being infested with prankster blood, setting up traps had become a new hobby of his. He spent most of his days learning about different ways to utilise relatively simple traps to the best of his abilities.

His visits to the hidden villages of Rain and Waterfall were short and uneventful as there wasn't much to learn for him. He was already familiar with some of the lower ranked techniques and both villages weren't too fond of the idea of a stranger learning their most powerful skills. Instead, the perverted hermit opted to go into the open lands and stay with some of his friends for a while.

The village they had just left to head for Sand was Hidden Stone. This trip proved very useful as it was here where Naruto got the chance to train his physique. He picked up some new Doton jutsus as well, though soon the two of them were forced to leave. The presence of one of the legendary sannin didn't go unnoticed in the village. The people from Stone still felt a lot of hatred towards Konoha because of the last Shinobi War, when Yondaime slaughtered many of their people. The hatred shown soon became too much for Jiraiya and Naruto, causing them to abort their stay. Thankfully, no one knew who Naruto really was. If the fact that one of the two Konoha shinobi was actually Yondaime's son would be discovered, they would have had a much bigger problem.

Every now and then, Naruto summoned a wild lion to check up on his family and to inform them on his progress. He always reminded them of their promise to come and visit him in Konoha. Every time his summon returned, he carried the same message, telling the boy to get strong enough to defeat Sandaime first as they were very keen on meeting the legendary ape king Emna. This always motivated the blonde to train even harder so that he could see his relatives sooner.

Around that time, Kyuubi had decided that the time had come to start communicating with her vessel as this hadn't happened thus far. It took Naruto a while to get used to the voice in his head. The nine-tailed fox told him that he was almost ready to start learning some demonic skills. He would start to receive more chakra from her so that when training would start, he would be able to perform jutsus other than the most basic ones, since they required a ridiculous amount of chakra.

While staying in Hidden Sand, Naruto befriended the Kazekage's children. It was funny to see the way in which his relationship with them was different for each of them. With Gaara, he obviously shared the experience of having a demonic creature sealed inside. Kankuro was mainly subject to the young prodigy's pranks and spent a lot of time bickering with his new 'friend'. He and Temari seemed to be getting along well. She was amused that he was unfazed by her aggressive ways of dealing with men but kept trying nonetheless. Still they had become sort of close, in their own strange way.

Having just turned eight years old, it was nothing more than just a friendship, although Jiraiya was quite impressed with his young student for becoming close friends with an older girl. "You have to learn it on an old bike," he often said to the annoyance of Naruto, who called him a pervert in return.

He was given the opportunity to train regularly with the Kazekage himself. The Sand leader agreed to do this after Jiraiya had helped him by completing the faulty demon seal used on his youngest son, finally making it possible for him to sleep and grow up normally. That together with receiving the first copy of the sannin's latest novel, Icha Icha: Extreme Mud Rumble, made him offer his favourite author anything he wanted.

Jiraiya asked for three things. He wanted his devoted fan to train Naruto personally during their stay, a permanent friendship between Suna and Konoha and most important of all a brand new hot springs facility to be built in the village.

His new best friend immediately agreed on everything and soon word was sent to Konoha with the good news of their new alliance. Because of the excellent training opportunities and while waiting for the new hot springs to be completed, they decided to prolong their stay in Hidden Sand. Apart from his daily training with the strongest shinobi in Suna, Naruto was asked to tutor the Kazekage's children, who recently had started their shinobi training.

Kankuro, who was hesitant about Naruto training him at first, soon discovered the usefulness of Naruto's Kage Bunshins for his puppeteering training. Naruto had found a way to infuse them with more chakra, making to possible for them to sustain a bit of damage before disappearing.

With Gaara, he focused mostly on controlling the boy's demon and using its chakra to control sand. The tow of them developed a strong friendship as it was very easy for them to relate to each other. Gaara started to open up a bit and was becoming more social than he had been.

Even though he enjoyed training the two boys, he preferred to train with Temari as that gave him the chance to spend more time with her. He taught her some of the basic wind jutsus he knew and after he had noticed her outstanding chakra control, suggested that she should learn some medical techniques. At first she refused because the idea of becoming a medic-nin seemed too nerdish to her. It was after Naruto told her about Tsunade and the things she could do with the humongous amount of power she could obtain through learning medical taijutsu with that, she happily agreed to learning it.

The Kazekage had grown to like his new apprentice and enjoyed their training sessions. The pair focused mainly on wind jutsus, sand techniques and taijutsu training. As the older of the two wasn't exactly known for his taijutsu skills, he found it increasingly difficult to hold the boy off, especially when he was using his Kirameki or Shunshin no jutsu. Some of the village elders weren't too happy seeing their leader carrying cuts and bruises caused by a stranger but were kept quiet by his threat to send his youngest son to their house for a small 'visit'.

The last village Jiraiya and Naruto would visit was the Hidden Village of Mist. Saying goodbye to his new friends was difficult for the young boy, especially to Temari, but he knew they would meet again in the future. Jiraiya, once again was given the honour to open the finished bathing resort and was made honorary chairman. He took a further two weeks to 'fully explore' the area before heading off towards the Mist village.

During the four months they spent in the Water Country, Naruto continued to work on his fighting style, incorporating more and more jutsus into it. He and Jiraiya simulated various scenarios to improve his allround abilities. A friend of Jiraiya, one of the seven Swordsmen of the Mist, helped the young boy in improving his stealth. Using his own clones, the blonde trained this further and worked on his assassination skills by using some new Mist and Water techniques on them.

One day, Naruto ran into two Mist shinobi, a boy slightly older than him and his master, a skilled Chuunin who went by the name of Momochi Zabuza, who was severely beating up the kid for messing things up during their latest mission. Naruto, enraged by the sight of the crying boy, confronted Zabuza who attacked him.

The fight was very unevenly matched and didn't last long as Zabuza's jutsus had no effect on his opponent and Naruto's movements were simply too fast for the Demon of the Mist. The eyebrowless Chuunin found himself unable to dodge Naruto's attacks and was soon rendered unconscious.

The Uzumaki asked the boy, who introduced himself as Haku, to come with him. As the boy didn't have anyone else to go to anyway he decided to follow the stranger. He knew that staying with Zabuza wasn't the best option anyway so he would come along and see if staying with Naruto would be any better.

When Haku was introduced to the toad sannin, Jiraiya told him he was more than welcome to join them on their trip. When he found out about the boy's bloodline limit, he asked Haku if he would be interested in coming to Konoha with them. The young Mist shinobi was a bit hesitant at first as it is not every day that two relative strangers ask you to come to their village with them but when he saw that they were serious about it, he felt their sincerity and knew that they wouldn't harm him. Jiraiya told him he would receive proper training in an environment much friendlier than in the Mist so he could become a skilled shinobi and live the life he wanted.

Realising this sounded a lot better than staying here alone, he agreed. They would soon leave for Konoha as Naruto had almost finished his training here. In the meantime, the perverted hermit would make a start with helping the young boy in developing his bloodline limit.

During one of these training sessions with his new guardian, Haku injured himself. Naruto, who saw the accident, used one of his medical skills to heal his new friend. Haku had never heard of a thing such as medical jutsus and asked the others about it. After Naruto explained what he had done, Haku said he would be interested in becoming a medic-nin as well. The young Konoha Chuunin told him that his kaasan was probably the best medic-nin in the world and would be more than happy to teach him her ways.

Three weeks later, three figures were travelling through Konoha Forest, jumping from tree to tree. After a while they arrived at the massive gates of the village. It had been two and a half years since they left through those gates. Naruto, now nine and a half years old, looked up to the Chuunin guards and spoke. "Uzumaki Hitomi Naruto, Jiraiya of the sannin and companion Haku requesting access to the village."

He waited as three Chuunin on top of the gate looked at the travellers. When they recognised the toad sannin and saw the Konoha headband Naruto had put back on, they suddenly remembered the explicit instructions that were left by the Hokage.

"Welcome back to Konoha," one of them spoke. "Jiraiya-sama, Godaime-sama left instructions for us to summon you to the Hokage Tower as soon as you had returned."

The respondent smiled. "I see our fearless leader hasn't forgotten about us." He then turned to the two boys behind him. "We'd better go and see her straight away because I don't want to face her wrath. That monstrous strength of hers still scares me to death…" he said with a hint of fear in his voice.

When the trio arrived at the foot of the tower, Naruto opted for a less usual route and started to walk directly up the tower, using his chakra to keep his feet connected to the vertical wall.

When he reached the window of his adopted mother's office, he peeked inside only to see her doing her usual thing, sleeping over a large pile of papers. He leapt in and decided to give her a scare.

"Some things never change!" he said loudly, causing Tsunade to get up faster than he had ever seen anyone getting up before as she turned to impale her 'attacker' with her fist, only to hit air as she saw a yellow flash.

She quickly turned around to look at the intruder as she saw her young son with his arms wide open and his foxy grin on his face as he ran towards her.

"KAASAN!" He yelled, hurling himself into her shocked arms.

"Naruto, you're back," she stumbled, her eyes becoming increasingly wet.

The two hugged for a couple of minutes until Jiraiya and Haku finally arrived as well. Tsunade looked up at her former team mate and greeted him in old fashion. "Hello PERVERT, good to see you again."

Jiraiya replied in similar style. "Flatchest, long time no see," as his gaze moved slightly down, causing him to blush a little. Haku didn't understand that last comment as the woman's chest was obviously huge, but shrugged it off.

"And who is this boy, Jiraiya-kun?" Tsunade said, assuming her role as the Hokage again.

"We picked him up in the Hidden Mist village. He is an orphan with a very powerful bloodline limit who has expressed a desire to become a medic-nin." Jiraiya said as he introduced the two to each other. "Haku, meet our Godaime Hokage Tsunade, the best medic-nin the world has ever known."

"Nice to meet you Hokage-sama," the boy shyly whispered. The older man took over again, now assuming an official pose as his face turned serious. "We request for this boy to be accepted as a shinobi of Konoha."

"So be it," the Hokage answered as she smiled at the happy boy. "I know just the person to look after him. I will train you personally Haku-kun, starting in two weeks' time", she finished, earning a big hug from her adopted son.

Sarutobi, who was called in as soon as the news of Naruto's return had reached Tsunade, came in. After exchanging greetings with all, they sat down to discuss the past two and a half years. Naruto was told than within the village things had stayed the same. The biggest change was that Shizune had moved out of the Uzumaki manor to live together with fiancé Genma, which saddened him as he always liked having his big sister in the house.

Then the time had come for Naruto to tell them about his exploits. Besides the obvious visible changes, Tsunade and Sarutobi were surprised to notice that they couldn't detect any chakra coming from the young boy.

Naruto told them about the time he had spent with his biological family. His audience was shocked to find out that Jiraiya had fallen in love with a member of the Hitomi clan, but told him they were happy for him and that they hoped that this would put an end to his perverted ways. Naruto also told them about the new friends he had made, especially about Temari, which caused Tsunade to give him a warm, motherly smile. He carefully avoided revealing too much about his new skills.

When he was finally done explaining, Sarutobi stood up as he spoke. "Well Naruto-kun, as you have been avoiding most questions about your strength, I guess there's only one way to find out. I suggest you undergo the same exam as before you left. That way your kaasan, your other senseis and I can see if those two and a half years away have been a waste of time or not. Meet me at the Uzumaki training grounds in twp hours. I'll summon the others," he finished as he left the room.

Two hours later, everyone had arrived. After they had all greeted Naruto and heard some of his stories, it was time to start. Everyone close to Naruto was there; Tsunade, Shizune with Genma Jiraiya and Haku, his senseis Gai, Kakashi, Hizashi, Anko and Shikato, as well as his friends Shikamaru, Chouji, Hinata, Ino, Neji and Shino. Everyone was waiting curiously for the things to come.

The Third walked up to his student. "We'll do the exact same thing as the last time. I hope you're ready because we all expect a lot more from you. When we fight at the end, I expect some real competition this time."

Naruto just stood there and gave his examiner the biggest smirk he'd ever seen. "You'll be surprised oji-san. Don't expect to walk for a while when I'm done with you," he said as he prepared himself for the things to come.

**PLEASE REVIEW**


	6. Surprise after surprise

Thank you all for your reviews. I'm very happy to see that you like my story. Even though I love receiving all of them and I don't want you to stop sending them, I don't really intend to answer them, as I see it as making my chapters larger in an unfair way. You'll just have to wait and see what will happen. See it as my way of keeping you guys on the edge of your seats. I just wanted to tell Shikami15 that I've finished the whole Dune series 3 times besides seeing the films a couple of times as well as all the books his son has written. I can't get enough of the 'Dune universe'. Anyway, on with the story, enjoy.

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto**

Naruto and Sarutobi were standing opposite each other in a wide clearing of the Uzumaki training grounds. Around them, their spectators felt the tension rising while some of them murmured about the upcoming events.

"Alright Naruto," Sarutobi started. "I want to do the same things as two and a half years ago."

He then turned to the people around them. "For the ones here that don't know what Naruto had to do the last time. This exam consists of multiple tests. First of all he will perform every jutsu he knows, which I can tell you were 57 last time. "

Immediately the youngsters reacted heavily. They knew their friend was strong, but 57 techniques was absurd, especially so long ago. Neji looked at the former Hokage. "Hokage-sama, isn't it impossible for Naruto to perform every jutsu he knows at once? I mean, there is no way he'll have enough chakra for that."

The old man smiled. He had anticipated this. As none of the younger ones here knew about Kyuubi, he would have to come up with another way of having the young blonde performing all his skills at once.

"I know Neji-kun. Therefore, I will give him a soldier pill when his reserves are almost empty. That way he will be alright."

This seemed to have satisfied the young Hyuuga. Sarutobi signalled for his student to start whenever he was ready.

Soon everyone, including the older people with the exception of Jiraiya were seen jaw dropped as their common friend easily exceeded his previous total, only to stop at a whopping 92 jutsus. The boy chose not to give all his unique bloodline skills away at once, so he performed all the techniques, using two-handed seals.

About halfway through, he received a soldier pill, which provided him with enough chakra to avoid him having to use Kyuubi's chakra.

When he was finished, Naruto was given a break to recover once again and eat another soldier pill. In the meantime Kakashi walked up to Jiraiya.

"Jiraiya-sama, what is going on with Naruto's chakra? I can't sense anything and I wasn't able to copy any of his moves."

The perverted sennin smiled at his colleague. "That's part of Naruto's Hitomi bloodline limit Kakashi-kun. He can completely conceal his chakra and through using his "Blind aura no jutsu", no one will ever be able to copy any of his jutsus."

The lazy Jounin pondered over the answer he was given when Jiraiya gave him a devious smile. "Just watch the rest of the exam. I think you'll be shocked again soon," the white haired sennin spoke while patting him on the back.

When Naruto had regained his strength, it was time for the second part of the exam. The Third explained to the others that Naruto was going to perform as many jutsus as possible, starting with the least consuming ones, without replenishing any of his chakra. He told them that two and a half years ago, the boy was able to perform 32 jutsus without replenishing his chakra. What happened next really rocked the boat.

Being the confident boy he is, Naruto started to perform his jutsus one-handed. When most of the onlookers had recovered from the initial surprise, he started to perform 2 jutsus at once, ending up on a grand total of 64 jutsus, which already included some pretty decent elemental jutsus and sealing techniques, proving just how much his chakra capacity had grown during his absence. Jiraiya could already see the next round of questions coming from Kakashi and the others so after Naruto had collapsed from exhaustion, he started to explain everyone about the nature of Naruto's Hitomi bloodline limit. In the meantime, Naruto was brought inside to recover by receiving a boost from Kyuubi without the others noticing it. To kill time, his young friends were given a master class in advanced chakra control techniques from the older shinobi.

After a while, he returned completely revitalised. He nodded to Sarutobi, indicating he was ready for what was about to come. The old man turned to the spectators and started explaining.

"The last time we did this, Naruto had to fight me in an all taijutsu match, during which neither of us was allowed to use ANY ninjutsu or genjutsu techniques. Back then, he lasted 7 minutes before he was unable to continue," he said, stressing the word any as he was slightly afraid his opponent would use Kirameki no jutsu or Shunshin no jutsu.

Naruto signalled he understood the rules as he positioned himself in the first stance of his personal taijutsu style. With the exception of Jiraiya, everyone looked surprised as none of them recognised the stance he had taken. Most of the older shinobi were familiar with the Yondaime's Uzumaki taijutsu style; however the stance they saw here looked similar to it but was still somewhat different.

"Enjoy the show," Jiraiya said to Tsunade as he focused on his student.

Ready for the fight, Naruto looked at Sandaime as he had one request. "Before we start, I would like to request two things," he spoke.

"First of all I want to ask permission to use one single jutsu, Chakra no Mesu **(Chakra scalpel)** to be precise as this jutsu is an integral part of the medical taijutsu style that is part of my fighting style."

He continued. "Secondly, I suggest everyone moves 150 metres backwards because when they are this close, I can't guarantee their safety."

The Third pondered over this request for a couple of seconds before he replied. "You can use that one jutsu. However, if you use any other technique if will tell Emna to void your summoning contract as you are not worthy of it in that case."

"You have my word Sarutobi-sama," Naruto said in an official tone. "And we both know about my nindo. Don't worry, just that one jutsu as agreed."

The others had moved back far enough and were very curious to see the reason of them having to be so far away from the fight. Some of the Jounin instructors were placing bets on how long the boy would be standing this time.

Sarutobi eyed his opponent carefully, absorbing every bit of information he could get from his opponent's expression. He was surprised to notice a kind of seriousness on Naruto's face he had never seen on the boy before. He decided to test the Uzumaki first before attacking him.

"You should know that the last time we fought I held back, even though I told you I didn't," he said, trying to make Naruto lose his temper. Naruto however, was completely unfazed by this statement and couldn't hold back his amusement as a grin escaped from his mouth.

"I never thought that the one they call the best Kage of all time would have to resort to these tactics against a boy my age. I expected more from you old man," he calmly spoke.

Sarutobi realised he had lost the first round as he charged at Naruto at blinding speed, only for his fist to connect with air when he tried to punch the young boy, who had easily dodged the attack by steeping aside. Naruto quickly kicked his opponent on the back of his head, causing the Third to stumble forward as he tried to regain his composure.

"Can we skip the foreplay and get to it please?" Naruto asked. "Fine boy, as you wish," the older of the two replied as both suddenly disappeared from sight.

Moving around the training ground at incredible speed, the two exchanged kicks and punches, vanishing after each attempt, only to re-appear somewhere else. Despite his old age, Sandaime showed great agility as he aimed a powerful roundhouse kick at his opponent's head, but Naruto dodged and countered with a hard jab in his abdominal area. This gave him the two seconds he needed to activate his chakra no mesu (chakra scalpels) before he attacked again.

From the experience of fighting against Tsunade, Sarutobi was prepared for his medical attacks as he managed to avoid all attacks but one, which grazed his left leg.

Without the use of his Kirameki and Shunshin no jutsu, Naruto had to stick to his medical taijutsu and his Hitomi style. He leapt forwards towards the Third who aimed his leg at Naruto's side. Said person completely ignored the attack as he rammed his fist into Sarutobi's chest, causing him to fly back several metres.

Everyone was surprised to see that the blonde simply ignored the attacks aimed for him. Jiraiya told them about the Hitomi style, which made Naruto train his body to an extreme to be able to cope with those hits.

As the fight proceeded though, Naruto found it increasingly difficult to keep up with his opponent's handling speed, due to decades of battle experience. He couldn't get many attacks to connect while receiving more than his fair share. Even though he was trained to cope with this, there is only so much he could handle. A few minutes later, he was knocked off his feet again. As he slowly got up, Sandaime spoke to him.

"I guess this is all you're capable of for the moment. I have to admit I'm slightly disappointed in your growth son. I would have imagined summoning Emna would mean more to you."

He continued. "I don't think you will be able to recover from another hit, which means you have managed to fight against me for 21 minutes, 14 more than the last time. You might as well give up now since you're no match for me, even though taijutsu is by far my worst discipline."

Naruto looked over to a nodding Jiraiya before focusing on his adversary again.

"Well I guess I can't defeat you the easy way. I'm afraid I'll have to stop holding back," he said as he released the immense amount of chakra he used as a weighted suit.

From the looks on everyone's faces, he was reminded by their inability to read his chakra usage. "I have just released a chakra force field I permanently carry to function as a weighted suit."

He then faced the older man in front of him. "You should feel honoured Sarutobi-sensei, as you are the first person I have to do this to. Even I don't know how fast I really am because I keep this field up all the time and increase it gradually to improve but I think you'll find it difficult to even see me, let alone defend. You might be fast, but not fast like Gai-sensei. You've made a huge mistake by thinking you'd already won. You've become cocky old man and if there's one thing I hate, it is to be underestimated!"

Sarutobi was found speechless. He cursed himself inwardly as he realised he shouldn't underestimate the number 1 unpredictable ninja and show him his false feeling of superiority. If only he could take back his words, but it was too late for that now.

"It is true that I can't handle that many hits anymore, but that is fine if I don't receive any. The only reason you've been able to get me so battered up in the first place is because I can't use my Uzumaki jutsus, which I normally always do. Let's play a little hide and seek…" Naruto finished as he disappeared from everyone's sight. Jiraiya, Tsunade, Kakashi, the Hyuuga's and Gai where the only ones to catch glimpses of Naruto, though not much more than that.

Sarutobi stood in the middle of the clearing, looking around in slight panic as he couldn't detect his opponent anywhere.

Out of nowhere, Naruto appeared behind him as he used his chakra no mesu to cut Sandaime's shoulder muscles.

"Boo," he whispered before setting off again.

He continued doing this for another two minutes, thoroughly dissecting his helpless opponent until he was unable to move his limbs. Naruto ended the fight by performing an acrobatic forward somersault in front of the Third, using his heels to hit him on the top of his head, resulting in the former Hokage losing conscious and smashing face forward into the ground.

Seeing the fight was over, the victor quickly knelt down next to the knocked out man and used some medical jutsus to heal the old man. By the time Tsunade reached them, he told her that the Third was okay except for a headache in the morning when he wakes up. He was brought into one of the guestrooms of the manor to recover. After that the boy said goodbye to all his friends and went into his house as well.

The next morning when he entered his kitchen, Naruto found the former Hokage helping himself to some breakfast.

"Ramen, I presume?" He asked the boy, who simply shook his head. "No, I'll have some eggs with rice. My time away made me appreciate other types of food as well," he said as he boiled some water.

"You've grown up well Naruto-kun, your parents would have been very proud of you," Sarutobi said with a warm smile on his face.

"THANKS BUT RAMEN IS STILL THE BEST FOOD IN THE WORLD YOU KNOW, YUMMIE, YUMMIE!"the boy yelled as he continued to exclaim his eternal love for ramen.

Sarutobi sweat-dropped. _"Some things never change."_

He went on. "None of us really expected you to beat me for another two years, especially without your father's techniques," he complimented him.

"Arigato Sarutobi-sensei. By the way, do you know where Haku is?" he asked his eating sensei.

"Your kaasan took him to the office this morning. He will be questioned before all the formalities around swearing him in as a Konoha shinobi can be finalised. Oh, before I forget, she wants you to come and see her at noon."

He continued. "But before you go, I believe there's something we have to do. Let's go outside so you can tell Emna the good news.

Outside, Naruto bit his thumb and performed some on-handed seals as he spoke "Kuchiyose no jutsu: Ape king Emna"

When the smoke had cleared, the two saw the ape leader smiling at his summoner before looking at Sandaime.

"So the boy beat you already Sarutobi. He must be quite something to do that already," the mighty ape king said.

Hai Emna-san, he completely knocked me out cold and used a healing technique to fix me up afterwards. My head is still killing me," the old man said as he rubbed his painful head.

Emna turned his head towards his new summoner. "Then it is arranged. Summon me tomorrow so we can start working on your Thunderbolt staff technique."

The boy looked up to the ape as he wanted to ask him a favour. "Emna-sama, I would like to ask you permission to summon a small ape from your tribe to accompany the leader of my wild lion summoning tribe on a visit to my wandering Hitomi family. They told me that they would come to visit me here in Konoha as soon as I had earned the right to summon you. They have been wanting to meet you for a long time."

The ape king bowed his head as he spoke again. "Naruto-kun, you don't need permission from anyone within my clan to summon them forth. Once you've earned the right to summon us, you can do as you please." He continued. "As long as you treat us with the respect we deserve and you don't abuse your contract with us, we will stay loyal to you until the day you day. I suggest you take my son Oko to represent my tribe. I'll see you tomorrow for our training." With that he disappeared in a puff of smoke.

After sending Oko and the wild lion tribe leader Surumoto on their way to his family, Naruto went to see his mother. When he arrived at her office she sat him down and started talking.

"How is the old man, feeling any better?", she asked him with a sadistic smile on her face.

"He seems fine, just a headache," Naruto grinned in similar style. "Where is Haku by the way?"

"I've put him under the care of Shizune and Genma. He is a Konoha Genin now and soon I will start teaching him to become a medic-nin," Tsunade finished.

"Arigato kaasan!" the blonde said as he shot up to give her a hug.

"Anyway," the Hokage continued with a smile. "In the light of your test results and your victory over Sarutobi-sensei, I have decided to award you the rank of Jounin."

She proudly looked at her shocked son. "You have clearly shown that you possess the level required for this rank, though I expect you to continue your training like before. You're next goal should be reaching the level of the Legendary Three and Sarutobi-sensei, which is still far off of your current strength. The one thing you need most now is experience since you're still very young."

She paused for a second, giving Naruto the chance to process all of this.

"I'm enlisting you into the ranks of ANBU. With them you will be able to consistently go on high-level missions. You'll be a member of ANBU squad 4. Your squad leader is Aburame Shinto, your friend Shino's father. Also, head of ANBU is our friend Kakashi. I expect you to use our official title in public."

"Hai Hokage-sama," Naruto said, clearly showing he understood.

"Work hard my son, make us all proud."

During the next year, the young Jounin was away on missions most of the time. His squad consisted of 4 members; besides him, there was his leader Aburame Shinto, Yuuhi Kurenai and another Chuunin, who also functioned as medic-nin. Most missions were A-ranked and his squad successfully completed most missions.

When not on a mission, Naruto spent most of his time with his family or he trained his friends, who were now all attending the ninja academy, some basic skills. Besides that, he often trained with Sarutobi on his ninjutsu skills.

Jiraiya, who was out of the village most of the time to contact his informants, had left the boy scrolls containing some of the last jutsus the boy hadn't learned yet. To Naruto's dismay, he refused to teach him every technique he knew as he wanted to keep some special skills to himself. He argued that every shinobi has to develop his or her own style rather than becoming someone else's clone.

Inside the Uzumaki manor, his father had started to create a jutsu library before he died. Naruto continued where his old man was forced to stop as he started to file his knowledge into scrolls and work on new ideas for techniques.

Kyuubi had started to teach her Jounin landlord some of her lower level demonic jutsus. The boy found them more difficult to learn than anything he had ever tried before. When the boy slept, she would teach him the theory behind the technique and taught all the different demonic hand seals. Then during the day, he would try to apply his theoretical knowledge in practice.

The boy, now almost 11 years of age, had finished his training with Emna. Now able to use the Thunderbolt staff, he occasionally summoned the ape during a mission to get some practice with the weapon. Because of his record-breaking development, he finally started to be acknowledged by some of the villagers, although still not even close to the extend he would like to see.

After his first year with ANBU, he was promoted to squad leader himself. He was put in charge of a team containing another Jounin, a talented Chuunin and the recently promoted Haku who, due to his extensive training with Tsunade and Shizune, had become an adept medic-nin. Through training with his Genin team sensei, he was also able to develop his bloodline limit, making him a complete shinobi.

Shortly after his promotion, the Hitomi clan arrived in Konoha. In no time, Jiraiya and Yuriko were nowhere to be found.

Amato was extremely proud to hear that his grandson was a Jounin and ANBU squad leader now. The family was introduced to Tsunade and the rest of Naruto's precious people.

His family was honoured to meet Emna. They had a short talk, after which they paid each other their respect before parting ways. Naruto had a sparring fight with Hiro and almost managed to beat his uncle, using Hitomi taijutsu only.

When the time had come to say goodbye again, tears were shed in abundance. Yuriko and Jiraiya found it increasingly difficult to leave each other but swore to meet up again soon.

Another year had passed, during which Naruto's squad completed numerous missions successfully. Kyuubi's training finally started to pay off. The young Uzumaki Hitomi Jounin was now able to peform several demonic jutsus, although they drained a lot of his chakra.

Recently, he had decided that the time had finally come to start using his father's bloodline limit outside Konoha. Soon after, the news of the return of Konoha's Yellow Flash spread rapidly. Hearing that the boy they had always cursed 'demon boy' was actually the Fourth's son began to make the people in Konoha rethink their opinion on their former black sheep as Naruto got accepted more and more by the people around him.

One day Naruto, now 12 years old, was called in by his mother for a private meeting. It was the day before his friends would graduate from the academy.

Tsunade sat him down as she started to speak. "Naruto, I have decided to relieve you of your duties as a member of ANBU."

Naruto wanted to protest as she continued. "From tomorrow on you will be one of the Jounin instructors of one of the new Genin teams that will graduate from the academy tomorrow."

Immediately, a loud and agonising scream could be heard all over Konoha.

"NANI?"

**Please review everyone. I'm writing this for you. Tell me what you think. It's always great to hear that people like what you write, but advice on how to improve is also more than welcome.**

**I've finally reached the point from which on everything will develop at normal speed. I explained before that I wanted you to have a clear understanding of Naruto's childhood and how he reached the level he is at now. **

**I know that his development has been incredibly fast, but I hope that now at least you understand how it has happened. There will be a lot more character development from now on and the story will progress much slower, it also being more descriptive with more dialogues.**


	7. Forming a team

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto**

**Thank you very much for all the reviews. They are greatly appreciated. For the childish people I have one thing to say though. If you feel the need to flame someone without including any constructive criticism, at least have the guts to use your log-in name so I know who you are. If you have nothing useful to say, go to bed and think sins over. The next morning you'll feel refreshed and you'll continue your life more dignified. I'm glad most of you seem to enjoy it though. **

**Chapter 7: Forming a team**

"You want me to do WHAT?"

Naruto couldn't believe what he just heard. He never in a million years expected to be asked to become a Jounin instructor of a group of Genin who had the same age as him. The idea itself seemed preposterous already. He wouldn't even have a clue on where to start.

Tsunade carefully eyed her adopted son. He had expected his response and caught herself in slight amusement. She quickly recovered and prepared for the difficult task of convincing him to take up the job.

"Naruto-kun, I want you to do this because I'm sure that you'd be great as an instructor. Tell me, how did it go when you aught some of your friends some chakra control techniques?"

Naruto had to admit that he had done reasonably well as the others picked up on his instructions quickly. "Shit," he thought. "She's cornering me. I have to work my way around this mess."

"But those were just chakra control exercises, now there will be a lot more to it. Think about it kaasan, I'm too young for this."

"No Naru-kun," she replied. "In fact, you'll probably do better than most other Jounins. Your jutsu repertoire is much more diverse than that of most shinobi, you've got a talent for explaining things and with your natural enthusiasm they'll probably end up training harder."

She continued. "Besides that, to them you would be some sort of role model. They can look up to you as you are the living proof that it is possible to become very strong at young age."

Naruto took a couple of deep breaths. He could fell himself calming down again. He inwardly had to admit that there was an undeniable logic in his mother's reasoning, although he tried to ignore it with all his heart. In truth, he was just doubting whether or not was capable enough.

"If I…." he hesitated, "do this, what makes you think that they will listen to me and accept me as their superior?" Tsunade smiled as she knew she was winning this battle. "I'm sure you have your ways my son, you'll think of something," she said with a devious look on her face.

The young Jounin sighed in defeat. He knew he was a capable Jounin by now, although there still was a significant gap between him and the likes of Kakashi and Gai.

"Alright then, I accept," he spoke, earning himself a thankful look from the Hokage. "Do you already know who will be on my team?"

"Yes, but before I tell you I want to inform you that this year there will a big change in the way Genin squads are set up. As you of course know, up until now squads always consisted of three Genins. The Kages of the five most powerful Hidden Villages have decided to increase that to four. As a result, one member of each team shall be nominated for medical training so we can avoid unnecessary casualties in the future."

Naruto nodded. Although strange that this change only occurred after decades of having teams of three people, he couldn't disagree with the decision. He was sure that his mother was one of the initiators of this change, given her medical background and previous campaigns for more medical training.

"As for their names," she continued while trying desperately to repress a stubborn grin. "Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamaru, Hyuuga Hinata and…." She gave up on trying as she gave an amused chuckle much like the one from her former team mate. "… Uchiha Sasuke."

"…..eeeerrrrrrr…" was all her son could get out of his mouth, hearing the last name. He already regretted accepting. From his time with Itachi he had heard the stories about his younger brother. He was said to be power-hungry and hard to control. The Uchiha massacre had left deep scars to the boy.

"The sensei back at the academy and I believe that of all the instructors you are the best choice because of your age," the Fifth explained. "The kid is this year's rookie of the year, but he has a troubled mind. We hope that you could function as an example of how young people could become strong without losing control over their emotions. As a matter of fact, Itachi personally requested for you to be his instructor in his last update from Akatsuki. He shares our opinion."

"_Kuso, this will be a pain,"_ Naruto thought. "What does he know about the incident?"

"Don't worry, he knows the truth about Orochimaru. He has been told to keep it a secret to everyone else." She observed the boy for a few seconds as he contemplated the situation. "Stop worrying, you'll do fine. See it from this point of view, the sooner they all become Chuunin, the better it is for you since your job will be over."

Naruto sighed once more. "Whatever, do I know any of the other instructors?

Tsunade browsed through the papers. "Yes, you know Gai of course and I believe you've met Sarutobi Asuma right?"

The newfound Jounin instructor simply nodded as he stood up and walked towards the door. "You owe me for this HOKAGE-SAMA," he said, stressing her title. " I know where to find you next time when I need something big."

"Fine, fine. Just make sure you're on time tomorrow morning," Tsunade replied, sending a blow kiss his way. Naruto returned the gesture and gave her one of his foxy grins before leaving the room.

The following morning, he found himself in the teachers' room of the ninja academy. As expected, all of his prospective students had graduated. He now sat with Gai and Asuma, waiting for his name to be called out.

"This year will be quite interesting, I've heard a lot about these kids," Asuma while taking a long drag from his cigarette. "Let have a bet on who will deliver the most Chuunin during the next exams."

Gai clenched his fists and stood up with his fiery passion. "YOSH! I, MATO GAI WILL UNLEASH THE BURNING YOUTHFUL SPIRIT IN MY STUDENTS AND PROVE THAT HARD WORK CAN OVERCOME ANYTHING!"

Naruto sighed at his former sensei's antics. "Let's see if they can overcome the Genin test tomorrow. Than still it remains to be seen if they possess the qualities to take the Chuunin exams so soon."

"Ah, what do you know. You're just like Kakashi, you're just looking for a way out by failing them," Asuma teased his young colleague. "Who's on your team anyway?"

"Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamaru, Hyuuga Hinata and Uchiha Sasuke," Naruto revealed, groaning at the last name. Asuma snickered at the same name. "Good luck kid, from what I've heard he's a real hand full. How about you Gai?"

Again, the green clad taijutsu master stood up and raised his arm. "OUR BELOVED HOKAGE HAS BLESSED ME WITH THE OPPORTUNITY TO PRESENT MY PEARLS OF WISDOM TO YUKIMURA TENTEN, ABURAME SHINO, HYUUGA NEJI AND MY PRECIOUS ROCK LEE!"

"Wait, didn't Hyuuga Neji, Yukimura Tenten and Rock Lee graduate last year?" Asuma asked.

"Yes, but all three asked to train for one year before starting their duties a Genin. Except for rock Lee, who trained under Gai, the others received extensive training from their families," Naruto explained. He of course knew already since he had heard from Neji the year before.

"I've got Inuzuka Kiba, Akimichi Chouji, Haruno Sakura and the Third's grandson Konohamaru," Asuma said, taking another puff from his cigarette.

"The Third's grandson graduated already?" Naruto asked surprised. "Hai Naruto-kun. He's by far the youngest but didn't quite get the marks you would expect from someone from a Hokage lineage," the bearded Jounin said. He obviously wasn't happy with the job.

"Uzumaki Hitomi Naruto," a voice called.

"My turn," he said as he stood up. " You're on for that bet guys, start saving for me, hehe," he said confidently before heading off.

A twelve year old Jounin sensei strolled through the corridors of the Konoha Ninja Academy, looking for his designated room. When he entered the room, four Genin turned around to see who their sensei was. Three of them immediately jaw dropped when they recognised their friend.

"Are YOU our sensei Naruto-kun?" Ino asked in disbelief.

"Yes, I know. I think my kaasan has gone delirious or something," he answered. "Anyway, follow me outside," said to his students as he walked out of the room.

"How troublesome…" Shikamaru muttered while following the others outside.

The group of five got outside and headed for a nearby park where Naruto told them to sit down on the grass. Almost instantly, Shikamaru let himself fall backwards and started to gaze at the clouds. It didn't take the others long to follow his example.

It was a beautiful spring afternoon. The sun provided a comfortable temperature. Birds were busy building their nests. Not far away from the group, some children were playing tag.

Naruto positioned himself in front of the group. "Alright, most of us know each other already but I still want everyone to introduce themselves to their team mates and to me. Just tell us something about yourself, I'll start."

He smiled for a second as he introduced himself. "My name is Uzumaki Hitomi Naruto. I like ramen and training. I dislike people without respect for each other and people who give up. My dream is to become Hokage and to protect all my precious people. Also, I want to make a certain person pay for what he has done to my family," he finished. "Ino-san, your turn."

Ino stood up and straightened her hair and gave the others, in particular Sasuke, her most beautiful smile. "I'm Yamanaka Ino. I like flowers and Sasuke-kun. I hate people who don't take me seriously and Forehead-Girl!" she snarled, stressing her rival's nickname. "My dreams for the future are to become the strongest and prettiest kunoichi in the world and to be with Sasuke-kun," she finished as she sent a loving sigh towards the young Uchiha.

"Riiiiiight…" Naruto exclaimed as turned towards the next student. "Whenever you're ready Shikamaru."

"Jeez, why me," he said as he slowly got up. My name is Nara Shikamaru. I like playing shogi and watching the clouds. I dislike anything that involves moving. My dream is to retire at young age and spent the rest of my days looking at clouds."

The Jounin shrugged and motioned Hinata, who was nervously fiddling with her fingers, to start.

"I..I'm Hyuuga H-Hinata. I li……like cook-ing and fl…flowers. I dis…dislike m-mean p…pe…people. My dream is to be…become a w-worthy h…heir of my c…clan."

"That's a very good dream Hinata-san," her sensei tried to encourage her. Finally, he looked at the last member of his team, who was sitting at the side of the group being moody as usual.

"Hmph…" was all he said, not even getting up like the others. "I'm Uchiha Sasuke. I don't like much and I hate a lot of things. I have no dreams but two ambitions; to revive my clan and to kill a certain person," he mumbled.

Relieved that was finished, Naruto stood up. "We'll meet tomorrow at 10:00. If you're late you'll be punished", the last part mainly aimed at the snorting Nara. "Does everyone know how to get to the Uzumaki training grounds?" Everyone nodded. "Bring you're battle gear. You will undergo the Genin exam."

"Nani?" Ino yelled. "I thought we were Genin already?"

The blonde sensei looked annoyed. "No, you merely displayed the ability to become Genin. Tomorrow you'll have to prove that to me. If you fail, you have to return to the academy for another six months at least. You're dismissed for now, see you tomorrow morning," he finished, disappearing at once.

"How troublesome…" Shikamaru complained as the others left as well.

"So, how did it go?" Tsunade asked when she saw her adopted son coming into her office. "You couldn't have given me a stranger combination of personalities kaasan," the boy moaned as he sat down. "A shy one, a lazy one, an obnoxious one and a psychotic one," he summarised.

"And it's your job to turn them into a real team," the Hokage explained, pouring herself some sake. "Have you thought of a test already?"

"No, but I'll think of something tonight. See you at home," he said kissing his mother on the cheek before leaving through the window.

The next day arrived quickly. It was just before 10:00 when all had arrived. The group was now standing in a clearing of the Uzumaki training grounds. Around the clearing, high trees stood proudly, indicating the edge of a small forest. The sun was busy heating up the awakening village. Konoha was blossoming and not just in terms of its extensive flora. The village had just produced a new group of talented shinobi and kunoichi, who would one day take over from their elders and continue in the spirit of their birthplace.

Naruto inspected his students. The girls looked nervous, the Nara boy cultivated his trademark lazy pose. Uchiha Sasuke…. He just stood there, being overly confident and acting his broody self. He didn't know about Naruto's ability and therefore couldn't believe and accept the fact that a boy shorter and younger than him was his sensei. During the time when Naruto spent time with Itachi, he was never introduced to Sasuke, so there was no way he could know that Naruto has been training all his life.

"_Why am I doing this again?"_ Naruto inwardly complained but quickly regained his composure.

"Listen carefully," he started. " If you want to become Genin, you'll have to get your forehead protectors back. Give them to me now."

Everyone reluctantly handed over their proof of graduation. When he had all four of them, he placed them on the grass, underneath a tree.

"If for whatever reason you fail to retrieve even one of them, everyone goes back."

"How the hell do you expect us to do that?" Ino asked in disbelief. "You're a Jounin!"

Naruto smiled. "Figure out a way, look underneath the underneath is all I will say now. Time starts now."

Everyone quickly sped off, except for Sasuke, who casually walked up to his sensei with an arrogant look on his face.

"I always thought that the Uchiha would understand the importance of stealth Sasuke." Naruto stated calmly. He was curious and annoyed at the same time.

I do know that 'sensei', but against you I don't have to," he sneered. "You're even younger and shorter than me. You can't be a Jounin you cheat. I'm superior to you."

It took the blonde a second to calm himself down before he spoke again. "All talk and no action Sasuke," he said. "Let me give you a fair chance. If you manage to simply lift me up, I will acknowledge you're stronger and superior to me." Sasuke wanted to say something but was cut off. "However, if you can't lift me up, you have to do the same."

"Yeah yeah, whatever," Sasuke said. He didn't care since there was no way he couldn't lift someone the same height as him. He could see that the boy in front of him had much more developed muscles than him, but still she should have no problem lifting him.

"This will be easy," he said smirking. He walked up the Naruto and put his arms tight around his waist and attempted to lift him. For some reason, Naruto didn't seem to move an inch though.

Confused, he stepped back and activated his recently awakened Sharingan.

"_I can't detect any chakra activity, he must be wearing a weighted suit,"_ he thought.

Naruto could easily guess his thoughts. "If you want me to, I can take off my shirt and jacket so you can see for yourself that I'm not wearing a weighted suit."

Sasuke nodded as the person in front of him undressed his torso. He immediately heard some noise in two bushes around the clearing when two girls tried to stop their noses from bleeding at the sight of his tanned and muscular upper body.

His arrogant adversary tried again, without any result. He gave Naruto a frustrated look. "How do you do that?" he asked angrily.

"I have no intention of telling you, why?" he replied. "Can't the mighty Uchiha Sasuke even lift a younger person like me? You must be really weak." He taunted. This infuriated the Uchiha, who suddenly attacked.

Seeing he was about to perform a Katon jutsu, Naruto warned him. If I step aside, you'll burn the forehead protectors, which means you all fail. Try and hit me instead."

At once, the raven-haired boy started his offensive. With all his might, he attempted to land a blow on Naruto, who was easily dodging every attack. After a couple of minutes, Sasuke paused to catch his breath. As on cue, his opponent vanished from sight and appeared behind him.

"Where is your stamina Sasuke, tired already?" he asked. He then grabbed the boy and threw him high into the air into a tree 10 metres further.

"I'm hungry, you guys continue to obtain the target while I go make some ramen. Anyone else want some?"

Not hearing any reply, he started to walk back to the manor.

The other three looked in disbelief from their hiding spots as they saw their team mate lying next to a tree and their opponent walking away from their forehead protectors towards his house.

They couldn't believe their luck. Trying to avoid making any noise and setting off possible traps, they slowly crawled towards the tree under which their Hitai-ate were lying, seemingly unguarded. Just as Ino was about to grab them, a small ape jumped out of the tree, snatched the target and ran away.

All of them were dumbfounded. Soon after, they saw their sensei returning with a large bowl of damping ramen.

"Expect the unexpected, sometimes things aren't what they seem to be," the Jounin lectured.

By the time Naruto had returned to the group, Sasuke had woken up again. "How did you do all of this?" he asked annoyed. He felt humiliated by the blonde. His question sounded more like a demand than a question.

"I'm a Jounin guys, what did you expect?" he retorted. "It's only natural that I'm a lot stronger than every single one of you. If you want to pass, you'll have to try a lot harder." Start thinking about something.

The next thing they saw shocked them. They noticed Naruto performing some one-handed seals as he calmly said: **Suiton - Daibakufu no Jutsu** (Water Element - Giant Waterfall Technique). Next thing they knew, all of them were washed away by a relative small amount of water engulfing them and pushing the four into the forest. Naruto made sure he didn't put too much chakra into the technique as he didn't wanted to kill his students on his first day.

When everyone had recovered and tried to stand again, Sasuke cursed himself for not having his Sharingan activated. He would have loved to be able to copy this impressive technique.

"Damn, that guy is strong!" Ino cursed while rubbing her sore head. "What can we do?"

"How troublesome," Shikamaru moaned. "It seems there is only one way we stand a chance against him, which is if we all work together." He brushed the dirt off his clothes before looking at the others. "We'll need each other if we want to pass this troublesome test."

"Alright!" Ino cheered. "Are we all in?"

Shikamaru and Hinata nodded. Everyone now looked at the still angry Sasuke. "Hmph… you better not hold me back," he snorted.

Shikamaru gave his umpteenth sigh as he started to explain his plan.

**A/N That's it for now. Sorry for not updating for so long. I had my final exams, so I didn't have time to work on it. The chapter was supposed to be twice as long, but I didn't want to keep postponing my update further. I know this chapter is somewhat shorter than the other. The next one should be longer again. From now on you can expect more frequent updates though. Please don't forget to review, even if it's just a line. It keeps me going. I'll keep on writing for as long as you guys seem to like it and review. I'm starting to get the hang of it now, so hopefully the story will get better and better (it better be…).**

**I kind of need a Beta-reader to make sure that no mistakes remain in the story and that the quality stays good. If you're fluent in English and are interested in doing this, please let me know through a review. Thanks!**


	8. Challenges for the Young

**Arigato gozaimasu for all your reviews! More than 100 of them already! Keep them coming this way, I live off them. Anyway, on with the story.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto**

Chapter 8: Challenges for the young

Naruto had been waiting for some time now. He was getting restless and curious. No matter how much he trained, patience would never become one of his virtues, being the hyperactive person he had always been. He knew Shikamaru would eventually come up with a good plan of sorts. The last attack aimed at him was more than ten minutes ago already so he expected another attempt any second now.

After another minute of waiting he had enough of it. The remaining part of his patience had disappeared and the boy was annoyed, very annoyed.

"Are you giving up already? There isn't much time left," he taunted his students.

No sooner had those words released their grip on his lips or a barrage of kunai and shuriken were launched at him from three different directions. Realising he would be unable to dodge them all, he could only retreat to the only side left unattacked.

As he was about to land, he noticed the mistake he had made. A large, unnatural shadow was spreading itself around the area where he would be forced to land. _"Kagemane no jutsu,"_ the Jounin thought as he quickly performed a technique himself. "Kage bunshin no jutsu," he said. Three clones materialised hanging in the air around him. They quickly grabbed him and by using each other as a slingshot, Naruto was tossed outside the reach of Shikamaru's shadow jutsu.

"Not bad guys, not bad at all," Naruto said. "Perhaps there is some hope left for you guys."

Upon hearing a sound behind him, he quickly turned around. He looked at Sasuke, who was finishing some hand seals. "**Katon - Goukakyuu no Jutsu!"** (Fire Element - Grand Fireball Technique), he yelled as a fairly large ball of fire erupted from his mouth. Naruto immediately performed some hand seals himself. "**Suiton – Suijinheki."** (Water Element - Water Encampment Wall)

Sasuke was shocked. Not by the fact that his sensei performed this jutsu. He expected no less from a Jounin, no matter what age they are. The reasons behind his shock were the one handed seals. He was hoping he could copy some jutsus from him, but found himself unable to do so.

Naruto released the water barrier and leapt away from the Uchiha. He didn't get far as one of his students was waiting for him. Hinata, trying to push aside her self-degrading thoughts moved towards him and readied her attacks. She assumed her Jyuuken stance and attacked.

Naruto didn't have too many problems fending off the Hyuuga heir, though the sight of Shikamaru unnerved him. He knew about his friend's strategic capabilities. Currently, the young Nara was sitting in a lotus position with his hands put in some sort of an odd circular-shaped form. Ino stood in front of him, ready to defend her team mate in case Naruto attacked him.

Sasuke rejoined the attack. Together with Hinata, he managed to push Naruto further into the clearing. With Hinata continuing her assault, he engaged into another series of seals and took a deep breath. "**Katon - Housenka No Jutsu – **(Fire Element: Mythical Fire Flower Technique)"

The blonde Jounin quickly raced through his own seal and replied   
**Doton - Doryuuheki **(Earth Element: Mudslide Barrier). When he dispelled his defence, he noticed he was alone. All of his opponents had disappeared.

He slowly walked towards the tree, under which four Konoha forehead protectors were positioned. Suddenly, when he was still a good distance away from the target, three puffs of smoke rose up. Without hesitating, Ino, Hinata and Sasuke jumped up to a surprised Naruto. Earlier, when Naruto was unable to see them for two seconds when the wall of earth was rising, they quickly moved closer to the tree and used Henge to transform themselves into small pieces of rock or twigs.

It took him a few seconds to regain his composure and get himself out of this mess. Just as he wanted to jump up, he froze.

"Kagemane no jutsu…. successful," a smirking Shikamaru said as he walked towards the others, effectively causing Naruto to walk away from them and further apart from the tree.

"I sense that your hold on me isn't that strong Shikamaru-kun, one chakra boost and I'm free again," Naruto calmly stated.

"I know Naruto-sensei, but unfortunately for you I'm not alone," he replied. He knew he couldn't hold the jutsu for long against a strong opponent. Sweat was starting to drip from his face. He turned his head around; enabling Naruto to see what was behind him.

There stood Hinata and Sasuke, each on one side behind him. Sasuke had his hands in the Tiger seal, indicating that he was ready for another Katon jutsu, while Hinata stood in her Jyuuken stance, her hand lying on Naruto's shoulder.

"You have nowhere to go Naruto-sensei," Sasuke said. He obviously enjoyed the situation. He enjoyed being in control of his instructor, even if it was just for a minute. "If you try anything Hinata will hit you with her Jyuuken style and I will burn your ass."

Naruto smiled. "Ah, I see. Three to hold me down, while the fourth gets the forehead protectors." He could sense Ino approaching the tree with the targets lying underneath.

"No tell your ape to back off or we'll have to hurt you," Sasuke arrogantly demanded. He felt great, knowing he could hurt the Jounin any moment.

Again, Naruto just smiled as Shikamaru gave an agonising scream. "He's releasing an immense amount of chakra, I'm losing my hold," Shikamaru moaned. He knew he had to act quickly and lied down. His next action shocked Naruto.

Shikamaru's right hand moved to his leg. He seemed to grab something and put his empty hand above his own heart. Meanwhile Naruto saw his own hand moving towards his weapon pouch and take a kunai out. His hand then moved to his heart as well.

"I have my weapons pouch down lower on my leg than you do, Naruto-sensei," he explained. "When I just had my hand in no-man's-land, yours actually took a kunai. Now stop releasing your chakra and calm down." He finished as he started to move his hand closer to his chest, forcing Naruto to do the same. The tip of his kunai touched his jacket and the blonde grimaced as he could feel the sharp object trying to pierce through his skin. He had no choice but to back off and do what he was told.

Hinata reacted by rapidly disabling Naruto's arms and legs by sealing his tenketsus in those regions. Sasuke still stood firm, his hand maintained in the Tiger seal.

"Hurry up Ino!" Shikamaru screamed at his team mate, who was about to pick up the four targets when the small ape came running again. As the summon was about to snatch the forehead protectors, it stopped in its tracks.

A surprised Ino looked at the ape and saw that there was an unusual shadow around it.

"Pffffft, just in time," Shikamaru sighed. With the final remainings of his strength he had managed to place a circle of shadows around the target, with the exception of a small path to make it possible for Ino to walk up to them and finally pick them up.

Naruto noticed he could move again, albeit with great difficulty because of his closed tenketsus. He sat up and saw Ino holding up four Konoha forehead protectors triumphantly in the air. At the same time, the ape summon vanished in a puff of smoke.

"Well done guys," he congratulated everyone before telling the other to sit around him. When they came closer, they were shocked to see that he could move his limbs normally again.

"T-That's im..impossible.." Hinata stuttered.

After all of them sat down, he started explaining. "I have….an ability which allows me to heal incredibly fast. Consider it a bloodline limit," he lied.

He smiled proudly at his students. "As you understood the purpose of this test and even managed to defeat me, you all passed the Genin test. All four of you are now officially Genin."

Ino was the only one to cheer loudly. The others were either too tired, shy or grumpy to show their excitement.

"Now we need to discuss some things," The Jounin instructor continued. From tomorrow on we will commence active duty as a Genin squad from Konoha. The first couple of missions will all be D-ranked, to give you a chance to get used to life as a shinobi and to build some cohesion in the team. You guys need to learn to work together and trust each other. That way, you will all get stronger and you can learn from each other.

He saw that everyone understood what he was saying he started talking again.

"Besides our missions, we will also train as a team and with the other two Genin teams that passed earlier today. Do you know who are on Gai's and Asuma's teams?"

Everyone nodded in confirmation.

"Once per week, all three teams will train together with either Hatake Kakashi or Yuuhi Kurenai. They specialise in Ninjutsu and Genjutsu respectively. During that day, I will be away on missions myself."

"A-Ano N…Naruto-sensei," Hinata asked. "Will we still have time to train on our own as well?"

"Yes Hinata-san, you all have either bloodline limits or particular family techniques. It's best when you families train you in those. For you…" he said looking at Sasuke, "…you will be trained by Kakashi occasionally to master your Sharingan. He is most qualified to help you since he holds one Sharingan eye." Sasuke looked shocked, surely no one outside the Uchiha clan held a Sharingan, even more so just one.

Naruto understood his confusion. "If you want to know how he got it, ask him yourself."

"Moving on to the next issue, I'm going to appoint a team captain, who will be in charge when I'm not around and I know who'd be just the right person for the job," he chuckled.

"That would be either Sasuke or Ino since they are probably the strongest and the most dominant of the group," Shikamaru guessed. "They seem to be the most capable people to be the captain."

"No Shikamaru-kun," Naruto surprisingly said as he looked straight at Hinata. "Hinata will be the team captain."

The shy Hyuuga didn't know where to look. She could feel three pairs of eyes practically burning through her. "I expect everyone else to listen to her at all times when I'm not around or when I'm not able to lead," he finished.

"N-Naruto-sensei, a..are you sure that y-you want me m..me to be c…captain?" She asked, gasping for breath.

"I do and please stop calling me sensei," he replied. "There is no need for it when other people aren't around. I'm younger than some of you guys." He snickered, knowing this would piss off Sasuke.

"We meet up here tomorrow at seven in the morning. From here, we'll go to the Hokage Tower to get you registered and to receive our first mission. I want to aim for completing 3 missions in the morning, so we can use the afternoons for training," he said.

"Before you leave, I'd like to speak to you individually for a minute. As team captain, Hinata will go first," he finished. In the meantime you can get to know each other a bit better. I suggest you tell each other about your jutsus and other skills so you know what to expect from the others during missions." He motioned for Hinata to follow him as he walked back to the manor.

Inside the manor, Naruto told Hinata to take a chair as he sat himself down at a large dining table in the kitchen an started talking.

"You must be confused about my decision for making you team captain instead of the others, right?" He gently asked her.

"N-Naruto-sensei, d…don't you think s..someone else w-would be b…better for this?"

Naruto gave her a pleading look. "Hinata-san I beg you, please stop calling me sensei when other people can't see or hear us."

"I wi…will……Naruto-kun, b-but only if y-you use ch…chan instead o..of san on me," she nervously answered. Naruto gave her a large fox-like grin and nodded.

"Look, I chose you because you need to loosen up a bit. You've got no reason to feel so low about yourself. See this as good practice for the future when you will become clan leader."

Hearing this made Hinata feel weak. "T-Tousan doesn't seem to s..share the idea of m-me becoming a g..good l…leader. He tells me I'm w-weak."

"Nonsense!" Naruto reacted loudly, causing Hinata to flinch in her seat. "You've just never shown him your true strength and potential. You have to stop holding back when you spar against your little sister. During a fight, she is the enemy. If you show both her and your father how strong you actually are and that she can't beat you, things will change. Your sister will realise she needs to work harder to keep up with you and your father will see what you're made of. Right now, you're holding yourself back, as well as your sister. You're better than that Hinata-chan."

Naruto's words seemed to have the desired effect as inside the Hyuuga's mind, realisation began to dawn upon her.

"_Hai, Naruto-kun, I understand. I will show my true strength. I have lived like this for too long. I promise I will work as hard as I can,"_ she thought.

The young Uzumaki could clearly see the newfound determination on his student's face. He smiled at her before opening his mouth again.

"Also, for the first time ever Genin squads consist of four Genin. Hokage-sama has requested for all Jounin sensei to nominate one of their students to receive medical training from both her, Shizune-san and Haku-kun. I want to nominate you as you are the most suitable candidate from this team with your Byakugan and excellent chakra control. After all, you weren't the first to be able up trees and on water for nothing all those years ago. Are you interested?"

Hinata felt a blush coming up. She couldn't believe the amount of confidence her sensei had in her.

"Hai Naruto-se…err…-kun. I'd be honoured."

"Good," Naruto said with a smile. "I'll let the Hokage know. As for your training: the most important thing for you now is to get confidence, lots of it. Work as hard as you can on your Jyuuken style and if possible try to learn some Hyuuga Ninjutsu. Later on, I will start teaching you some other jutsu," he finished.

"You can go back now to see your team. Please tell Shikamaru to come in now. I'll come back to see all of you when I'm finished talking to everyone."

After Hinata had left it was Shikamaru's and later Ino's turn to come in. The shadow user was told to dump his lazy attitude and start working harder. Naruto explained that the more his friend trained now, the sooner he would become Chuunin and later Jounin. He was told that A and B-ranked missions pay a lot more than C and D-ranked missions, so by becoming a Jounin earlier, he would be able to retire earlier as well. This of course sparked the student's interest. Naruto also advised him to focus on his chakra capacity and taijutsu skills.

Ino was a whole different story. The only encouragement she needed was the prospect of defeating her rival Sakura. The Jounin's desperate attempt to convince her in dropping her pursuit of Sasuke was a bit more difficult. Naruto tried to reason with her by saying that Sasuke didn't seem interested in any girls at the moment. Stubborn as she was, Ino refused to completely give up on her crush at once, but she had to admit that she saw the logic in her sensei's words. At the end, Naruto advised her to focus on learning jutsu other than her family techniques and her taijutsu.

The last one to come in was Sasuke. Naruto wasn't looking forward to this meeting but he knew it was very important to get the Uchiha prodigy on board. He had no idea how to accomplish this though, so he decided to ask the boy instead.

"What do you want from me Sasuke-kun?"

The question surprised the boy. He remained silent for a second before answering.

"I don't care, as long as I get strong fast."

Naruto saw his chance. "That's fine, but I want to know what I can expect from you. Will you be doing what I tell you to do? Are you going to ignore the others or will you make an effort to be part of this team?" he asked him.

"Hmph… They'll only hold me back because they're weak," he said, his voice filled with patronising contempt.

This angered the blonde. "Is this what you want?" he retorted, raising his voice. "Do you want to stay an outsider, be grumpy and moody, and live without friends just working towards a goal you won't be able to achieve for at least another decade?"

This earned him a furious glare from the Uchiha.

"Yes Sasuke, that's right. I know everything. I know what happened to your clan, and about…..Orochimaru…."

Hearing the snake sannin's name angered Sasuke even more as Naruto continued.

"You know, that snake bastard killed my family too, in fact he used the same kinjutsu on both our families…."

This seemed to calm the boy down a bit. He understood that he wasn't the only one to have his family taken away from him.

Naruto was relieved to see that he was finally getting through to him.

"You're not the only one who wants to give that traitor a piece of your mind. I too have sworn to have my revenge on him. However, I refuse to let that desire for revenge to cloud my view of my priorities. Right now, I am still far away from becoming strong enough to beat Orochimaru and I'm a Jounin already. Imagine how much further you will have to grow before you can challenge him. The desire for revenge will destroy you long before that time has come Sasuke. Everybody needs a life besides their duties as a shinobi, even you."

Sasuke was very calm now. For a second, Naruto thought he saw a tear developing in the boy's right eye.

"I've been living alone for the last four years. I simply have nothing else in my life except for my revenge." No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't keep his emotions in check anymore.

For the first time in more than three years, Uchiha Sasuke cried.

"That snake took everything away from me!" he yelled as he slammed his fist on the wooden table. "He slaughtered my clan! Even now, I can't see my brother because of that bastard!"

Naruto remained silent. He knew how his student felt. He decided to simply wait for Sasuke to calm down. All those years of cropped up pain and anger had to come out. He looked at Sasuke, who was still trying to stop the continuous flow of tears that were coming from his eyes. After a few minutes, the young Uchiha finally calmed down again.

"I know how much everything sucks for you at the moment. You miss Itachi, don't you?"

Sasuke raised his head and looked up to Naruto, who had a sad smile on his face. "Do….do you know my brother?"

"Yes, I do," he replied. Before Itachi was sent away on his mission, he trained me for a while. We were friends…" Naruto said, reminiscing the moments he had with the Uchiha genius. "I miss him too."

Sasuke nodded in understanding. He found comfort from the realisation that he wasn't the only one in his situation.

"Here's my plan," Naruto started. "Become part of this team and show everyone the real Uchiha Sasuke. Make them proud of your clan. If you do, I will train you to the best of my abilities and when we're both ready we'll get our revenge on that traitor together, you and me."

He continued. "You are the strongest on the team at the moment, but that doesn't mean that you can't learn anything from the others. For example Shikamaru is much smarter than you and he is a master of strategies. Hinata has more talent in taijutsu than you do and Ino is the Genjutsu type. All in all you all have different areas of expertise, make use of that. If you use your skills to help your team mates, they'll do the same for you. If you accept them and befriend them, you will all grow. Besides that, you'll be a lot happier than you are now, that's for sure."

The next thing that Sasuke did left the normally talkative Naruto completely speechless. Uchiha Sasuke was smiling…..smiling……

Sasuke looked at his dumbfounded sensei. "I will, I give you my word. I'll try and some day you'll have to admit that I'm stronger than you," he finished with a slight smirk.

Naruto burst in laughter. "Yeah right, I'm not going to let an Uchiha with as little talent as you surpass me, I'll be Hokage!" he teased loudly.

"Alright, here's what I want you to do," Naruto started his recommendations. "You should work on your chakra control and taijutsu. Your Genjutsu is actually your weakest area along with chakra control, but once you have increased that, learning Genjutsu becomes a lot easier."

He continued. "Also, I want you to train on becoming strong without your Sharingan as well. If you rely on one asset too much, you will become useless if for any reason you can't use it some day. Still, you have to train it. That's why Kakashi will help you as I said earlier."

"Thanks," was all Sasuke said so Naruto chose to speak once again.

"One more thing before we go back to the others Sasuke. You'll have to earn your jutsu. I'm not simply going to give you techniques. Picking up jutsu from enemies is fine, but not here. If you truly want to become a strong shinobi, you'll have to work your way up like everyone else."

"Does that mean you'll be performing those one-handed seals again like when we fought before?" Sasuke asked.

"No, I'll still have to show you and the others which seals to perform. Yet, you'll find it impossible to copy anything from me, you'll find out how tomorrow," he mysteriously finished.

When the other saw Naruto and Sasuke returning, they couldn't believe their eyes when Sasuke greeted them. Everyone looked at Naruto, who smiled as he opened a large bag he had brought.

"I've got a little present for you for passing the Genin test and becoming active shinobi," he said as he dropped four brand new weighted suits on the grass.

"What are those Naruto-kun?" Ino asked. Before he could answer, Shikamaru spoke up. "Weighted suits, how troublesome…"

"Indeed," the Jounin instructor confirmed. "You won't be needing any speed for D-ranked missions so that will give you some time to get used to them. It will increase your speed and stamina. You're not allowed to use any chakra to move easier. Let your bodies cope with the extra weight. We'll go running every day."

"GRRRRMPGH," was all the lazy Nara could exclaim as he fell back into the grass. The thought of all this hard work made him sleepy already.

"Come; let's celebrate your new status over at **Ichiraku, my treat!" Naruto enthusiastically proposed.**

**As they left, Naruto smiled from ear to ear. _"That wasn't so bad after all. Maybe this whole instructor thing isn't such a terrible thing. Besides that, if I can't make it to Hokage I can always consider a career in counselling,"_ he happily thought before snapping out of it.**

**"Hurry up guys! I'm starving!"**

**A/N**

**That's it for today. I hope you still like it. As I said before, from now on the story will slow down and assume a rather casual pace instead of the 'racing' format of the first 7 chapters.**

**Also, Blitz Kitsune has been kind enough to be the Beta-reader for this fic. **

**Please be kind enough to review, thanks!**


	9. Mission to the Wave Country

**As always, thank you all for taking the time to review the previous chapter. I think everyone who's actually writing a fanfic themselves realise just how nice it is to receive them. I find it interesting to see how many hits each chapter has had, thanks to the new format of this site, compliments to all Fanfiction staff. **

**I'm off on holidays to both Italy and The Netherlands from tomorrow onwards. Still, I wanted to update since it had been too long. I have to warn you though. This chapter has not been checked for typos. Normally I would re-read it at least twice to remove any errors, but there simply isn't time for that now. Apologies. **

**Anyway, back to the story.**

Chapter 8: Mission to the Wave Country

It was seven o'clock, the morning after the Genin test. All four students of Naruto's team made their way towards the Uzumaki training grounds, still trying to rub their eyes clean of sand from their slumber. They found it hard to move, as their new weighted suits pushed their bodies towards the ground.

The sun made its attempt to climb the sky above Konoha once more in what appeared to be another beautiful day.

When the four Genin arrived at the training grounds, they noticed their sensei was already some personal training.

He stood in the middle of a clearing, his hands stretched out in front of him. Two large trees that appeared to have been pulled out of the ground moved around in circles around the young Jounin. At young age, Naruto was taught how to envelope object with his chakra and move them at will.

When he saw his students approaching him, Naruto welcomed them and motioned them to follow him inside the manor for some breakfast. He had decided to occasionally have team meeting which didn't involve shinobi activities so everyone could get to know one another better and create some sense of group cohesion.

The five of them just talked about small and unimportant things, sharing the occasional laugh. The other Genin, still not quite used to the all new and improved Uchiha Sasuke, who sometimes offered his own input during the conversation. What rocked their boats even more was seeing him failing to keep his traditionally sealed lips straight as every now and then he was forced to curl them upwards.

As soon as the small meal was finished, the group moved outside into the training grounds. Naruto faced his audience and started explaining.

"From today on, you will start a new life: the life of shinobi and kunoichi of Konoha. You'll probably be fighting against others, fights that could kill you."

This statement caused everyone with the exception of Sasuke to struggle swallowing. The last of the Uchihas was forced to shed his fear of death long ago. His traumatic loss, caused by Orochimaru, relieved him of any false hope of being able to live an easy life without fear.

Naruto continued. "If don't want to die, a change in attitude is needed. You'll have to train harder than you've ever done before."

"Pfff…" Shikamaru groaned. "Wearing this troublesome weighted already is more training than ever before for me," earning a snicker from Ino.

Naruto simply ignored the shadow user's lazy comment. He was already looking forward to kicking his attitude far away.

"Things will become a lot tougher from now on," he said. "I want everyone to promise me that they won't slack off and work as hard as humanly possible," he finished, closely observing his students. "I want to see some hands from anyone who will do just that."

Three hands rose up instantly. Shikamaru looked around and slowly released a hand from his pocket. "I know I will regret this."

"Good," the Jounin sensei said smiling. Let's do some training before we have lunch."

Two minutes later, everyone gathered next to a couple of trees as Naruto started his explanation.

"I know some of you already know the tree climbing exercise. When he noticed the annoyed look on Sasuke's face he explained that he had taught the other how to do this years ago.

"I still want you to do it though. The weights you're wearing will make it more difficult as it requires your control to be even more exact."

Naruto gathered his chakra to his feet and walked up the tree like it was nothing, earning a surprised look from Sasuke.

"I'll be fair with you guys. I still need to do my own training so whenever we do some sort of physical training, I will take part in it as well. As you know I maintain a chakra force field around myself, which functions as a weighted suit. If I double the amount of pressure on my body, climbing up the trees will be just as difficult for me as it is for you. The same goes for other types of physical training such as push ups and running."

He landed on the ground and motioned the others to start their training.

Two hours later, Shikamaru, Ino, Hinata and Sasuke were all panting. With the exception of Sasuke, all of them figured out they simply had to use more chakra to be able to climb the tree. Sasuke's case was different.

As he had never been one for the basics, tree climbing was a new experience for him. He had yet to reach the top of his tree. Even though he understood why the others had already finished, an Uchiha is an Uchiha. It made him feel even more determined to complete his training so he would be behind his team mates anymore.

Not that the others were happy with their results. One could argue that doing as many push ups and sit ups as possible could hardly be described as relaxing.

Naruto called his students to him. Slowly, everyone walked up to him.

"Before we will go for lunch we have to do our running. Three laps around Konoha should be enough for today. Oh, and no chakra while we run," he said with a big smirk on his face.

"Jeez, troublesome slave driver," Shikamaru groaned.

Naruto pondered for a second as suddenly, a wide grin appeared on his face. "Shikamaru-kun, since you love exercising so much, I feel I should add an extra incentive for you." Naruto bit his thumb and performed some hand seals. **"Kuchiyose no Jutsu"** he said as a Lion the height of a table appeared from the smoke.

"Endo-kun, would you be so kind to follow my student here while he runs with us. You can bite him if he falls back."

The lion nodded and looked at his pray. Shikamaru gulped. He could have sworn he saw a sadistic smirk on the lions face. _"Mommy, help!"_ he thought as the lion started to run towards him. Immediately he starting running for his life, faster than he ever knew he could. The others couldn't hold their laughter and soon followed the poor Nara.

Three hours later, everyone arrived at Ichiraku. They all paused for a minute to catch their breath. Naruto performed a healing jutsu on Shikamaru, who despite his frantic running received some painful marks from his new best friend." When he was fetched up as well, they made their way towards the ramen stand, where the other new Genin teams were seated already.

"Ohayo minna-san," Naruto greeted the others when he came in.

"So Naruto-kun, you passed them after all. I'm surprised to say the least," Kakashi said, not even bothering to look up from his book.

"They got the message and worked as a team, I had no choice. I still can't believe she let you off" Naruto replied. When Tsunade had told him he would be a Jounin instructor, he knew he would just fail them and get back into ANBU.

Oji-san, the usual for me and please take the orders from my students and put them on my tab!" he yelled to the ramen stand owner.

"Ahhhhh, my beloved ramen, how are you today?" he said to the damping bowl of food in front of him. To the ones who didn't know Naruto it would seem like he was chatting up his food, but for the others it was common knowledge that he was simply preparing himself for one of his trademark ramen fests.

Naruto was about to dig in when a voice right behind suddenly yelled.

"YOU!"

Annoyed by this interruption, Naruto turned around, only to find a brash Kiba standing in front of him, close enough for their noses to almost connect.

"You were my sister's Genin team mate right?" He spat with an overly confident voice.

Naruto gave the boy a closer look. "Inuzuka Kiba right? Your sister mentioned you a couple of times, mostly when you annoyed the hell out of her with your childish antics."

Kiba, getting angry because of the patronising tone used on him got even closer to the Jounin. "Hmph, you're my age and even smaller than I am. You can't be a Jounin you cheat! I challenge you!"

Naruto just smiled. "Are you sure you want to Humiliate yourself in front of your friends Kiba-kun?" he asked.

"Defeated by a shrimp like you? Akamaru and I will prove we're the strongest here, right Akamaru?" he yelled to his canine partner. The dog barked enthusiastically.

"Okay Kiba-kun, who am I to say no to a great and powerful shinobi like you," Naruto said, desperately trying to sound serious as he bit his thumb.

"**Tajuu Kuchiyose no Jutsu: Wild Lion King of the Tundra clan"**

In front of the Jounin stood 14 lions, all varying in size and colour. They all looked at Kiba and Akamaru as in unison, they gave a loud growl.

As if he had seen the dog devil himself, Akamaru ran away yelping with his tail buried deep in between his legs.

Kiba had never been more frightened in his life as he stumbled backwards. When he tripped over a small rock and fell over, Surumoto appeared right above him and showed off his razor sharp fangs.

"Your deficient dog seems to know what's best for him. You'd better follow his example and run for your life insolent brat," the tribe leader spoke aggressively.

Kiba jumped up and ran towards the group. He hid himself like a small kitten behind the first adult he could reach, which happened to be Kakashi.

"Get away from me Kiba-kun, you asked for it," Kakashi said. "I don't want them to come after me as well," he said. Even the almighty elite Jounin felt unnerved seeing so many lions staring at him. He knew his dogs would shit themselves if he would summon the now. Even more so, he would need a long and thorough shower to get rid of their smell before he could even think of summoning them.

Asuma decided to interrupt. "Okay, playtime's over, gather around," he said as the Wild Lion Clan gave Kiba one last deadly glare before disappearing in a sea of smoke.

When everyone had come closer, Asuma introduced Kakashi and Kurenai to the students and explained that all Genin would have two joined training sessions per week under the wings of the new Jounin. When he finished, the three Jounin took their teams to the Hokage Tower to receive their first mission.

Five weeks passed and Naruto's team was now used to the pattern of completing D-rank missions in the morning and training in the afternoon. During the weekend, Naruto would go on solo missions, leaving his students with Kakashi and Kurenai.

The team had gotten a bit closer to each other over the past few weeks. Their skills were improving slowly but steadily. Still though, they were given the lowest of all missions.

Sometimes Naruto would help out himself by creating some clones to speed things up a bit. In the meantime he just sat aside, writing down ideas for new techniques.

Sasuke, although changing slowly into a less broody person, still considered far superior to his team mates. Still, he accepted their help with the tree climbing exercise. He was annoyed by the fact that he was the only one who wasn't able to do it yet, but with the help of the others, he picked it up quickly.

Weeks of relentless training had gone past. A new morning had come and Naruto's team found themselves on yet another tedious mission.

This time, one of the local farmers had requested some extra help around his vast lands. Four Genin were seen bent over in the fields in their attempts to remove any weeds.

Naruto, who kindly rejected their cries for help, sat on the ground supported by a wooden fence. He was studying one of the countless jutsu scrolls he had found ion the library his father had started to build up.

He paused from his reading to check up on his team. All four Genin were working hard, losing enormous amounts of sweat. The sun was burning down on them, making them feel like a slice of bread which has been in the microwave for a minute. Not that they would ever what a microwave is but still, they felt just like that.

They were told to keep all their clothes and shinobi gear on. After all, one could never know what would happen. Being unprepared is a capital crime for any shinobi.

Work was made more difficult by the weighted suits they were still wearing. Not too long ago, Naruto had found it time to crank the weight up a notch, or in Shikamaru's case a notch or two. When it became apparent that the other were getting used to the amount they were wearing, the lazy Nara tried to conceal it by continuing to huff and puff like he had done from day one. He was soon found out though and was punished by receiving a larger increase in weight than the others.

On top of that, Naruto had introduced a new punishment system. Every time Hinata was shy, insecure or indecisive for nothing, she was forced to do 100 push-ups, 200 sit-ups, 100 leg squads and 3 laps around Konoha.

The same applied to Ino when she acted like a Sasuke fan girls or when she complained too much.

Sasuke was punished every time he acted arrogant, broody or when he answered with just a 'humph'. For him and Shikamaru the punishment meant performing twice the amount of exercises compared to the girls.

For Shikamaru the principle was very simple. Should he slack off or complain even the slightest, it would be his turn. His problem was and still is: He complains non-stop. As a result, he was seen doing any type of physical training throughout the day. The advantage though was that he grew rapidly in strength, speed and stamina.

Naruto smiled as he looked at his students. He had to admit that he enjoyed his new job. He now had even more time for his own training and his family and still had enough time left to spend to relax with his friends.

Throughout his childhood years, he had been training most of the time. Finally he felt like he could do whatever he wanted.

Sure, the money wasn't all that, but then again; Being the son of the Fourth and the Fifth covered that.

The thing he missed most was the action. Part of this was filled up by Sarutobi and Jiraiya, who were always willing to give him a severe beating. He hated the gap that was still between them, though it motivated him to train even harder.

His thoughts went to his precious people. He was happy to see how well Haku had adapted to life in Konoha. He was on his way to become Jounin himself and had started to create himself quite a name as a Suiton and medical expert.

Naruto wondered where his family was. The last time he saw them was a few months ago, after he finished one of his solo missions. Everyone was fine. Yuriko was ecstatic to receive a letter from Jiraiya and gave Naruto a letter to give to the perverted sennin when he saw him.

Next up in his mind were the Sand siblings. Tsunade had told him that the next Chuunin exams would be held in Konoha in three months and informed him that the three would participate.

Seeing a certain blonde kunoichi made his heart beat rise in speed. It'd been so long since the last time they saw each other. He also wondered how Gaara was doing. He was curious to find out how strong his friend had become and made a mental note to have a sparring match with him.

As his mind snapped back to reality, he noticed that his team had finally finished removing all the weed. The only thing left to do was watering the crops. Deciding he wanted to get back to the training grounds, he used a quick Suiton jutsu to speed things up.

For the next couple of weeks, this regime continued. The team members were getting on better and better.

Their teamwork was growing by the day and all the physical training started to pay off. For the first couple of weeks, Naruto had focused on improving his students' taijutsu and chakra control. Only recently, he had given each of them a couple of jutsu scrolls to learn.

He wanted his team to be as balanced as possible. Therefore, he insisted on teaching them different techniques. The found it hard to master them, but the success of learning a new technique gave them more self confidence.

After a dodgy start, Hinata was slowly gaining the courage to lead her squad and speak normally. Just after the team had passed the Genin test, Naruto went to see Hyuuga Hiashi. He already knew the Hyuuga clan leader from his days under the wings of his twin brother Hizashi during his time as a Genin.

He requested for Hinata to receive more intense training in her bloodline limit. Furthermore, he pleaded to Hiashi to refrain from putting his daughter down, so she can develop herself easier.

It angered the man to be told how to treat his own spouse, but after Hinata finally beat her younger sister for the first time, he seemed to change slightly.

It was two months since Team 4 started their first missions, when they were getting increasingly irritated by the endless amount of useless D-rank missions. One day, Naruto and his students reported at the Hokage Tower to receive their next mission.

The entered the mission room. Konoha obviously took a lot of pride in this area. It was a large spacious, almost hall-like room. Only the necessary amount of furniture was used to avoid clutter.

In the centre of the room stood three large ebony tables. Close to the walls, behind the tables, five stone sculptures representing Konoha's Hokages rose up high.

The walls were decorated with drawings of legendary battles and images of Konoha's finest. The large windows brought in an abundance of natural light, which seemingly set fire on the polishes, soft-brown coloured wooden floor.

Behind the tables, the Sandaime Hokage and Umimo Iruka were seated. The Third helped Tsunade by relieving her of the time consuming task of allocating the countless missions, giving her more time for other matters….or just to sleep.

Naruto bowed at the two. "Hokage-sama, Iruka-san," he greeted the two. "Uzumaki Hitomi Naruto and Team 4 reporting."

"Hello Naruto-kun, I see your team looks stronger every time they are here," Sarutobi greeted back as he browsed through some papers.

"Team 4 will be given a D-rank mission," the old man said.

Iruka nodded and took a scroll from his desk. "You are to buy and deliver groceries for the Akimichi clan. Expect it to be very heavy," he snickered.

Just as Sarutobi was about to sign the appropriate forms, he was interrupted by an angry Ino.

"No!" she yelled. "I'm sick and tired of those stupid D-rank missions! We've been training very hard; I know we're ready for something bigger than that!"

She then heard a soft snicker from her sensei and gave him a foul look. "Shut up, I don't give a shit about your punishment for complaining. As long as we get to do something different for a change!"

Sandaime looked surprised at the young the young girl's angry outburst. Iruka was about to jump up and strangle his former academy student when something unexpected happened. Hinata took a step forward and bowed.

"Hokage-sama, if I may. As squad leader of Team 4, I would like to say that I fully agree with my team mate. Naruto-sensei has been training us extremely hard and with the help of our families and Kakashi- and Kurenai sensei I can say only one thing: We are ready."

Hinata bowed again, shuffled back in line, not daring to look at the shocked faces of the other. She cursed herself for being bold enough to step up to the Third Hokage. She prayed her father wouldn't find out.

Sarutobi gave Naruto a quick look. The Jounin instructor gave his former sensei a nod in confirmation.

The Third gave Hinata a friendly smile. "Very well, Hinata-san. I will give you a C-rank mission this time."

With that four deep sighs were heard. Although Sasuke and Shikamaru remained silent throughout the conversation, they had to agree with their female team mates. Those stupid missions were a pain.

Sarutobi started the mission briefing. "You will accompany a man back to his home in the Wave Country. He is building a bridge and may be attacked by bandits. You are to protect him at all times."

The Genin seemed happy with what they heard. Pleased, the Third continued. This mission will probably take a few weeks as you will be staying there until the bridge is completed. Make sure you come prepared. Meet tomorrow morning at 07.00 at the North Gate, where you will meet your charge."

He signed the papers and gave the scroll to Iruka.

"Hokage-sama, I have one request." This time Naruto chose to say something.

"Since this mission will take us a while, I want to make the most of it by training my students as much as possible. I ask permission for a medic-nin to come with us on our mission to teach Hinata during her absence from Tsunade-sama's training sessions. My other students could also learn some other useful jutsus from this person."

The Third pondered the question for a coupe of seconds. "I agree Naruto-kun. I will assign your friend Haku to your group. Perhaps he can help you in teaching your students some Suiton jutsus.

"Arigatou gozaimasu Hokage-sama," Naruto thanked him, giving a short bow himself.

He then led his team out of the room. Just before they were gone, Sarutobi said one more thing. "Good luck kids, don't let me down."

"We won't Hokage-sama," the four Genin replied in unison.

The next morning, Team 4 gathered at the North gate of Konohagakure no Sato. Naruto introduced Haku to his students and the group chatted for a while. They had to wait for a couple of minutes before their charge arrived as well. Tazuna eyed his 'protectors wearily.

"Six small brats, is that all I get?" he sneered. Hinata and Shikamaru together were hardly enough to prevent Ino from killing their client before the mission had actually started. Even Naruto needed to take a couple of deep breaths before he spoke.

"There is no need to worry Tazuna-san. I may not look like it, but I have been a Jounin for some years now. Haku here is a highly skilled ANBU member and medic-nin," he defended his group.

"More so, all my students come from Konoha's prime clans. We will be more than enough for C-rank mission as it's highly unlikely we'll be fighting other shinobi."

Tazuna, still not convinced, snorted and started to walk. Naruto and his team followed his lead and left the village as well.

The group walked through the forest of Fire Country. Naruto had instructed Hinata took take the lead since her Byakugan came in useful for scouting the area. Ino and Sasuke flanked Tazuna, while Shikamaru was told to follow the bridge builder from behind. Naruto himself and Haku followed from a small distance, observing everything.

Suddenly, Shikamaru tensed. "Be sharp guys, we're being watched," he stated. The others frantically looked around, looking for signs of enemies, but to no avail.

When they were about to shrug it off and continue their journey, two figures rose from a puddle of water and attacked Tazuna.

The two enemy shinobi released long chains from their sleeves and swung them towards the old man. Sasuke quickly jumped up and threw two shuriken, which stuck the chains to a tree.

One of the Mist Chuunin laughed. "Look what we have here. A sweet little Genin who can take away out chains," he said. "You're not bad kid, too bad you're all going to die here," he finished as the two jumped towards Tazuna, who was now surrounded by Sasuke, Hinata and Ino.

Then from behind them, a voice was heard and the two nukenin found themselves unable to move.

"Kagemane no jutsu," Shikamaru calmly said. Hinata quickly closed some tenketsus, so they couldn't use their arms and legs when Naruto and Haku finally came out of hiding.

"Well done guys, you took care of two Chuunin without our help. Very impressive," he complemented his students.

"Why didn't you help us Naruto-sensei?" Ino asked, still a bit shaken from her first ever encounter with enemies, who would not hesitate to kill her.

"Well, I wanted to see who they were after, us or Tazuna-san. When that became apparent you didn't even need my help anymore," Naruto explained. "These two are known as the Demon Brothers. They are nukenin from the Mist. Good job on those chains Sasuke, I suspect they carry poison on them."

Naruto and Haku tied up the unconscious brothers. Then the young demon vessel summoned a toad the size of an adult to carry them back to Konoha. He then turned to Tazuna.

"Do you have any idea why those two were after you?"

Tazuna gave a deep sigh. "Yes I do. I will tell you everything."

He explained about Gatou and his poor country, how Gatou wanted him dead so the bridge would never be finished and the people of the Wave Country would starve.

Naruto concluded that since the mission rank had gone up top at least B-rank, his team was not qualified for it and opted to return to Konoha. This caused his students to protest, telling him that they refused to back down from a mission.

After some more discussing the group decided to move on to the wave Country.

**Please take a minute to review this chapter. I would appreciate it greatly!**


	10. Grudges from the past

**A/N**

First of all, let me apologise for not updating for so long. I have been on holidays for quite a while and now I'm working day and night. I finished my degree so I am officially a slave now. I'll keep on writing though so don't worry, there's no writer's block or anything. Still, if you have any ideas, be sure to let me know. There's always room for improvement!

The previous chapter was a bit rushed at the end. The reason for this was that I posted it literally an hour before I had to go to the airport for my trip to Italy. Therefore, it had not been checked for inconsistencies and/or mistakes. Spell-check should have taken out most of them, but there wasn't any time left for me to do the rest.

Someone complained unnecessarily about the story having plot holes and even wanted to know who the current Hokage was. I suggest you re-read the fic if you feel you've missed something because it clearly states that Tsunade is the Hokage and Sandaime helping her out occasionally. As for the title, previous Hokages are obviously still highly respected. It would feel strange to call the man who has been Hokage for several decades by a lower title all of a sudden. When it involves another village, people would probably say Sarutobi-sama but for Leaf shinobi it will remain Hokage-sama.

I've been looking forward to this part of the story. Even though the mission to Wave Country seems the same at first, it will be completely different, having huge consequences for a future arc.

I will try to update faster than I have been doing for the last couple of months. Things have been hectic here with me going off on holidays, than having to move to a different city (London) and starting my new job. I'm 70 hour weeks at work so there isn't much time left to write. I will finish this fic, though it might take a while. I promise I will update quicker than I have now, three months is very long but a lot has changed for me.

Thank you ever so much for reviewing my chapters! I appreciate you guys taking the time to leave me a small note. I know authors always ask for them, but it's the only way for us to see whether or not you enjoy the story. Why else would someone continue to put so much time in writing it? Most of you seem to like it and I can assure you that I will finish it. It might take a while though as this story will probably become quite a long one. Please continue to give me your opinions.

God, that's long, sorry for that… Let's move on!

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto**

**I would like to thank my beta-reader Amped for helping me out. Be sure to read his story: 'Strength of a Hero'.**

**Chapter 10:Grudges from the past**

Naruto's team, accompanied by Haku and Tazuna, had left Fire Country and were currently on a small fishing boat, crossing a large lake towards Wave Country. During their journey, their boat entered misty weather, effectively concealing them from their surroundings. As they approached the shore, the fisherman who had smuggled them into the country told them that they would have to continue their travels alone from there. They thanked the man as they got off the boat and moved on over land.

Time went on as they got closer and closer to their destination. Tazuna was obviously tense. He knew he had taken a big risk by requesting a C-ranked mission. Now he was back, accompanied by six brats of which two were supposed to be upper class shinobi.

Still, he had seen first-hand what Gatoh was capable of doing. He feared his life and that of his family. He knew he was the country's sole chance of finishing the bridge and end its despair. He also knew that the fate of the bridge lied in the hands of these six young shinobi.

The group walked through a small forest. Clouds had descended upon the ground, giving the area an eerie atmosphere. The forest seemed to be haunted by ghosts and strange sounds were coming from deep inside the forest. The Konoha shinobi were obviously tense, expecting an attack at any moment. They had surrounded Tazuna when entering the forest. Once the mist set in, the group had moved closer together, trying not to leave any openings for an opponent.

"Everyone duck!" Naruto suddenly yelled.

Haku quickly tackled Tazuna as the four Genin dropped to the ground. Naruto simply stepped aside, being the only one to have sensed the direction from which the danger arose and the path it travelled.

When everyone looked up, they saw a long, wide sword cleaved into a tree. They sped away, creating some distance between the weapon and themselves. They noticed a man standing on top of the sword, covered in bandages and equipped with a slashed Hitai-ate from the Hidden Mist village on the side of his head.

"So we meet again… Uzumaki Naruto," the man spoke.

Naruto smirked at the sight of his enemy. "Indeed we do, Momochi Zabuza. I still remember our last meeting like it was yesterday. I hope I didn't hurt you too much," he taunted.

Sasuke, Ino, Hinata and Shikamaru were surprised to see that the two knew each other from the past and that apparently Naruto had once defeated the strange man.

Then they noticed Haku, who had his fists clenched at the sight of his former master. For a second he lost control over his chakra, which drew Zabuza's attention to the other shinobi.

"Well well, if it isn't my former slave. So nice to see you again Haku. So you're still playing shinobi with these weaklings?" he sneered at the ANBU.

Zabuza directed his attention back to Naruto. "As much as I'd love to chat with you, I have a mission to accomplish. Hand me the old geezer and I'll let you go this time," he said.

Naruto frowned. "I don't think you're in the position to ask for anything, unless you think you can defeat all of us here," he countered the demand.

"Pfff, those kids of yours aren't shinobi. As long as you aren't in my bingo book, you're no threat to me. It's just the two of you."

This caused Naruto to grin. Trying to suppress his laugh he spoke again. "It seems you've forgotten the last time we fought all those years ago. Even for the Demon of the Mist this is too much."

The answer to the young Jounin's statement came in the form of dozens of shuriken heading towards the group from all directions.

Surprised by the sudden attack from outside, Naruto and Haku blocked the assault with their kunai while the Genin protected Tazuna from getting hit.

The group looked around, trying to find their hidden enemy.

"Byakugan!" Hinata yelled as the veins around her eyes bulged. She stood still for a few seconds. "I see eight people hiding in the bushes around us Naruto-sensei," she said, trying to keep her calm. So far she'd done well in keeping her composure. However, the situation at hand threatened to take that all away.

"You can come out now, you've been spotted." Naruto spoke to the eight. A few seconds later the figures appeared around Zabuza.

"Uzumaki Naruto, at last we meet. We will make you pay for all you and your father have done to us," one of them snarled at him. The man looked enraged, similar to the looks on the faces of the other seven from his group.

"I am not my father and I've certainly never done anything harmful to anyone from Iwagakure. Why do you wish to fight me over something I have never been involved in?" he asked the leader of the group.

"Because that filthy piece of low life scum killed our families and friends with that cheap technique of his!" the Jounin screamed. "And it seems you have taken over as Konoha's Yellow Flash!"

"_Konoha's Yellow Flash?"_all four Genin thought in unison. "Naruto is the son of the Fourth?" Ino yelled. The others were equally shocked. They had heard of Yondaime's Shunshin no jutsu and the devastating effects it had had on the Stone during the last Shinobi war. The idea of their sensei being the son of this legend was a bit hard to digest.

"Hehe," Zabuza laughed. "You see Naruto; you're not so popular outside that stupid village of yours. It seems you're in trouble now boy!"

Naruto cursed inwardly. Here stood the Devil of the Mist, accompanied by eight Stone shinobi, from the looks of it five Jounin and three Chuunin. They were still in a small forest, making it more difficult to fight a larger number of enemies. Naruto wished for more space, many of his techniques had a high destruction ratio and the last thing he wanted to do was endanger his students or level part of the forest.

Zabuza eyed the four Genin, seeing some anxiety in them. He smirked and turned to Naruto once again.

"So how are we going to do this? If you give me the old man, I'll let the children live. You, however have some unfinished business with my colleagues here."

Haku, whose anger had reached its boiling point, stepped in front of his friend. "Naruto-kun, please let me take Zabuza. I owe him something for what he's done to me in the past."

Naruto smiled and put his hand on Haku's shoulder. "Just be careful okay?" Haku simply nodded and walked towards Zabuza. His hands flew through some hand seals as he angrily shouted: "**Suiton Suiryuudan no Jutsu **(Water Element: Water Dragon Blast)"

From the lake next to them, a giant water dragon arose and lunged forward towards Zabuza and the Stone shinobi, all of whom jumped away to avoid being hit by it. The enemy was now scattered all over the area, giving Naruto the time he needed to instruct his Genin.

"Guys no matter what, protect Tazuna. Stay as far away from me as possible. I need space for this fight," he instructed the four. He then nodded at Hinata, who had difficulty breathing. Ino noticed her team mate's nervousness and tried to pick her up. "Ne Hinata-san, we trust you. You'll be fine."

"Listen guys," Naruto instructed. "You'll probably get a few opponents yourself. Think about your teamwork, remember your training. Together you can beat them!"

He then bit his thumb and formed some hand seals. "**Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" **he said. A man sized ape appeared.

"Otara-kun, please protect my students and our charge from harm." The ape nodded at Naruto and joined the Genin.

"Now GO!" Naruto yelled.

"Hai," his students confirmed as they turned around to create some distance like their sensei had told them to.

"_Stay alive guys,"_ Naruto thought as his attention returned to the Stone shinobi.

While Naruto was talking to his students, Zabuza instructed the Stone Jounin. "Remember our deal Daiki. I need the old man but it seems that I'll be fighting my former slave. Some of you have to do it now."

"Yeah yeah," the leader of the group replied. He turned to his comrades and pointed at three of them. "You three, get the old man and kill those kids!"

The three Chuunin confirmed the order and sped off in pursuit of Tazuna and the four Leaf Genin while the other five Jounin focused on the blonde Leaf Jounin. They changed formation and now surrounded their single opponent.

Haku and Zabuza were now facing each other in a small clearing next to the lake. They both used a lot of Suiton jutsus so both of them preferred to be around a source of natural water.

"Do you really think you can take me on Haku? Aren't you overestimating yourself?" Zabuza sneered at the boy.

"No, I believe it is you who is overestimating your own skills. If I recall all those years ago, Naruto turned you into a piece of ass wipe!" Haku retorted.

Zabuza kept his smile up, though inside he was fuming. His humiliating loss to the blonde was still enraging him.

"That may be true, but fortunately for me, I'm facing you right now. I have grown since then and I don't think that your bloodline limit will have the same effect on me as his does." With that he performed some hand seals, causing an unnatural mist to envelope the area around them.

"**Ninpou: Kirigakure no Jutsu** (Hidden Mist Technique)"

Haku immediately poured some chakra into his ears to increase his hearing and leapt away, trying to hide his presence as much as possible. He then silently created a handful of water clones and told them to engage the adversary.

"Haku Haku Haku… What are you thinking boy?" Zabuza sneered. "What difference do you think a couple of clones are going to make?"

Haku himself chose not to answer. Zabuza was trying to locate his former tool. Making unnecessary sounds was not an option against this enemy.

Zabuza had made quick work of the clones as he had slashed through all of them instantly. "Is that all you've got brat?" the Demon of the Mist asked.

"Not really, I just needed some time to pull this one off," Haku retorted as he performed some one-handed seals **Hyouton: Ashikase no jutsu** (Ice Element: Leg Entrapment).

As Haku slammed his palm on the ground, a line of ice raced towards the unsuspecting Zabuza. Having the mist obscuring his sight, he noticed too late when shards of ice started moving up his feet and calves. The ice shackles prevented him from jumping away from the impending danger.

"_Nani!"_ Zabuza inwardly screamed.

Not too far away from Haku and Zabuza, four Genin and a man-sized ape were busy fending off three Stone Chuunin. Hinata had ordered Otara to stick close to Tazuna and keep one of the Chuunin busy while she and the rest of her team handled the other two opponents.

All four of them realised that the key to getting out of this mess in one piece is sticking together and working as a team. Over the past weeks, Naruto had split the group into two teams of two shinobi, making them train as much as possible to get used to each other's fighting styles. When the two groups had grown into decent pairs, he had them fight him over and over again to make the two teams know each other's strengths and weaknesses inside out. This would help them in working together efficiently in battle.

Now, Ino and Shikamaru had moved behind Sasuke and Hinata. The Uchiha and Hyuuga were much more proficient in hand-to-hand combat, while said duo relied more on long-distance attacks. This way, they were able to complement each other's shortcomings and stay alive.

The Stone Chuunin decided to split up, feeling confident in taking on two Genin at once. Using Doton - Doryuuheki (Earth Element - Mud Wall Current), everyone was forced to jump away from the large mud wall that appeared between them. The four Genin were now split up in two pairs of two. The problem was that the Genin were not with their regular partner but someone else instead. Normally, Sasuke and Ino fought together as did Hinata and Shikamaru. Now, there was one pairing that specialised in hand to hand combat and another pair which preferred to fight from a distance.

The Chuunin who was given the job of killing the ape and Tazuna swallowed with some difficulty in seeing the large ape standing in front of him. He quickly assumed his fighting stance and waited for the ape to engage him.

Sasuke and Hinata were not having a great time….. Their opponent was a big man, big by every definition. On top of that he seemed to be able to form a layer of chakra reinforced rock all over his body, rendering Hinata's Jyuuken useless.

This left most of the action to Sasuke while Hinata tried to cover her team mate as best as she could.

"**Katon - Goukakyuu no Jutsu **(Fire Element - Grand Fireball Technique)" Sasuke yelled when he tried to crack the rock surface with his flames.

"Ku ku ku," like such a pathetic technique would work on my rock skin," the Stone shinobi laughed. Sasuke jumped back, next to his team mate. "Kuso, we can't get through him like this."

Sensing his chance, the man prepared for a technique himself. Performing some quick hand seals, raised his voice in delight.

"**Juuro Senbon!" **(Raining Needles)

In the sky above them, a cloud of chakra appeared. Soon enough hundreds of razor sharp senbon needles came down at the two Leaf nins.

Seeing the attack coming from above, Hinata immediately jumped in front of Sasuke and started to rotate rapidly.

"**Hakkeshou Kaiten!"**

A high cylinder shaped wall of chakra raced in circles around Hinata's body, deflecting the incoming senbon needles, which now fell to the ground harmlessly.

Back with Ino and Shikamaru, Ino had created 2 Mizu Bunshins and kept her opponent busy while Shikamaru was thinking.

"_There's no choice. If we want to get out of here alive, we will have to kill them. Kuso, am I ready for this? I have always know that being a shinobi would mean that at some point I will be forced to take someone's life…Now that that moment has come I am chickening out. Come on you stupid arse, it's troublesome but dying is even worse. I guess I'll have to use it then…"_

With that he snapped out of his thoughts and readied his hands. His hands formed the 'Rat' seal. **Kage Kubi Shibari no Jutsu **(Shadow Neck Bind).

A black hand appeared from Shikamaru's position and moved towards the Stone nin who was still fighting off Ino's clones when suddenly he froze in his tracks as he felt a hand crawling up his body towards his neck.

A sickening cracking sound was heard as she shadow hand broke the Stone shinobi's neck like a twig. Shikamaru dropped to knees in despair.

"_My first kill… How many more will follow?"_

Ino quickly ran to her team mate. She stood behind him and hugged him in comfort.

"It was the only way Shikamaru-kun," she said, trying to soothe him. "It was either him or us."

Shikamaru turned his head, looking at his team mate. "It's strange if you think about it."

Seeing his friend's confused look he explained.

"Our parents have killed many people throughout their careers. Still when not on a mission they can be affectionate and happy."

Ino knew exactly what he meant. She had often wondered how people could put the horrors that came with shinobi life behind them and continue to live their lives.

"They say the first kill is the hardest to deal with," she answered. "We are shinobi, warriors trained to kill others. We kill for our village, because our leaders have asked us to. Though that doesn't take away the fact that we are still human beings who have other goals in life. We still need the comfort of others around us and we still want to be happy in our lifes. Somehow we will get used to it and be able to put it aside and move on with our lifes."

Shikamaru simply nodded as he slowly got up. "We should go help the others. I'm feeling quite drained from that jutsu so I won't be of much use for a couple of minutes."

With that they walked away from the lifeless corpse behind them. Ino stayed close to Shikamaru, holding his arm to prevent him from falling. Shikamaru looked at his team mate and managed to put a small smile on his face.

"Thank you Ino-chan,"

Sasuke was getting tired. He had been trying to burn his way through his opponent was he wasn't faring well. Nearby, Hinata was having a go at the enemy using a Raiton jutsu she had leaned from Naruto but the rocky surface on the Stone shinobi's skin blocked all her efforts.

"We need to get rid of his protection Sasuke, nothing is working!" Hinata said to the Uchiha.

"Any ideas?" Sasuke replied. He was already running low on chakra, as was Hinata.

The Stone shinobi made some quick hand seals. "My turn to attack!"

"**Doton - Doryu Dango (**Earth Element - Mud Ball)!"

The ball of mud slammed into Sasuke, propelling him through the air and into a tree. Upon impact, he fell down on the hard ground and lost consciousness.

Hinata was getting really nervous now. Her partner lay behind her defeated and she was getting tired. Everything seemed hopeless.

"Only a little girl left. You Leaf shinobi are truly worthless trash."

"Who are you calling trash shitbreak!" came from behind him. Ino stood there alone, waving her fist angrily into the air.

"Jeez, you guys are like insects; can't get rid of them," the Stone shinobi moaned.

"Oh yeah? I'll show you what these 'insects' can do! "**Magen Jubakusatsu **(Demon Illusion: Tree Bind Death)" Ino screamed at the man in front of her.

"How is that for an insect eh?" she yelled at the man who was now trapped in the branches of a tree.

"Ino-san, we need to get rid of his rock armour." Hinata said to the blonde Genin.

"I got it, be ready Hinata!" Ino replied while preparing another technique. Hinata quickly prepared herself for what was to come. With her Byakugan blazing and Jyuuken readied she waited for Ino to finish her technique.

"**Ninpou: Shintenshin no Jutsu **(Ninja Art: Mind-Body Switch Technique)"

Ino's body slumped into the ground while at the same time her Genjutsu was cancelled because her soul had left her body temporarily. The Iwa Chuunin's joy was short-lived as he felt a foreign presence taking over his body.

Hinata looked at the struggling man in anticipation. Suddenly a wide smirk appeared on his face. "Alright, I'm in!"

"Ino-san, is that you?" Hinata asked to make sure.

"Yeah it's me alright. Listen, I will cancel this rock armour jutsu-thingy of his and leave his mind, I won't be able to do much for a couple of seconds so I need you to take care of him for me Hinata.

Realisation hit the Hyuuga. She would have to kill him. There was no way around it. Sasuke was out, Ino incapacitated for a short while and she couldn't see Shikamaru anywhere.

"I d…don't k-know if I c…can……" she said unable to control her voice anymore.

Ino saw the despair in her team-mate's eyes. "I know Hinata-san, but there is no choice. Shikamaru had to kill as well in our fight. I would do it for you if I had the opportunity but I can't….. Please Hinata; use your Jyuuken to make it quick. I'll be here for you afterwards."

The Hyuuga heiress had trouble swallowing. She knew that she would have to take the man's life but that doesn't console her even the slightest. For years, she had been prepared by her father and the rest of the Hyuuga clan to become a kunoichi, but now that the time had come to shed her innocence by making her first kill, hesitation took over.

Ino, who was starting to get tired, noticed the internal war that was going on in her team leader's mind. "Hinata-san, we trust you and Naruto-sensei trusts you. He made you team leader for a reason. You know you have to do this. Do it to keep us safe. You are the only one left standing and it's either him or us."

Hinata understood Ino's reasoning. She nodded slightly. "H-hai," she almost whispered.

Ino, still inside the Stone shinobi's body gave her a pained smile. You can't afford to wait when you have the chance Hinata-san, make it quick. I'm running low on chakra here so get ready!"

Hinata stepped forward; her knees threatening to give in any moment now. She shuffled towards her enemy and assumed her Jyuuken stance. "I-I'm rea…ready I-Ino-san."

Hinata saw the possessed Stone nin in from of her close his eyes. Obviously Ino was preparing to leave his body and return to her own vessel.

Ino spoke to her friend and team mate one last time. "As soon as you see him slump down to the ground, you can be sure that I've left his body. Whatever you so, don't wait Hinata-san. One clean strike, that's all you need. I'll come to you as soon as I can. Be strong Hinata!"

With that the Stone nin closed his eyes ones more and fell down to the hard ground.

Hinata suddenly felt sweat coming out of every pore in her frail body.

"_This is it. I have to protect my friends and team mates. My team mates have put their faith in me, Naruto-kun has put his faith in me; Konoha has faith in me. I can't let them down. This is my life, my destination…" _

"_I am responsible for the lives of my comrades and the life of my charge. I will not allow anyone to hurt my friends. No one… no one will ever be let down by me. I have stood on the sidelines for too long. They gave me another chance, a chance I will cling on with everything I've got in me. I will not let anyone push me away anymore. I WILL NOT BE FORSAKEN!"_

With those last determined words racing through her mind, she leapt forward and delivered her fiercest blow she had ever dealt in her life.

"JYUUKEN!"

The Stone ninja, who was still trying to re-collect himself after being possessed, never even had time to defend. His hands grabbed his chest as he coughed up an enormous amount of blood. After what seemed minutes a look of utter horror appeared in his eyes before they rolled back in their sockets. He was dead.

Tears welled up in Hinata's eyes. She had done it, taken someone's life. Even though she knew it was imperative to do so, her heart ached as a result of her actions. No matter how much she wanted to, she just couldn't pry her eyes off her victim. She fell forward on her knees and cupped her face, fighting to control the burning tears that begged to flow. Failing to find neither will nor strength to hold them back, she soon cried uncontrollably.

Ino, who had been leaning against a tree to overcome her dizziness, had seen everything. She was relieved that Hinata was able to finish him off, but now felt truly sorry for the girl.

Although still a bit dodgy, she made her way towards the Hyuuga girl and enclosed her arms in a comforting embrace.

"Calm down sweetheart, it's over now. We all knew it had to be done."

Ino let herself fall backwards on the mossy floor of the forest. Spreading her legs slightly, she let Hinata sit in-between them, still holding her delicately from behind. They continued to sit there for a while, Hinata desperately trying to find peace with herself and Ino doing her utmost best to help her friend and nakama.

Tazuna was scared, very scared. While Naruto's ape summon was trying to fend off the last remaining Iwa Chuunin, he had been moving around in an attempt to stay away as far as possible from the fighting duo without losing sight of them. Somewhere in the forest there were still five Iwa and one Kiri Jounin around, who wouldn't hesitate for a second before killing the bridge builder.

There had been a few close calls already, when the ape got overpowered by his opponent. Just before the nukenin was able to deliver a killing blow, Otara could come between them and take the blow himself.

Now, the fight was rather one-sided. The countless injuries were taking its toll on the ape. The Stone Chuunin, although not without quite a few wounds himself, smelled victory. He prepared for another vicious attack.

At high speed he ran towards the summon, out for the kill when he heard something coming from behind some bushes on the side.

"**Kage Shuriken no Jutsu."**

A barrage of shuriken forced him to abort his run. He looked in the direction of the onslaught of weapons and saw one of the brats from earlier. The boy, his hair tied up and cuts and bruises visible through his fishnet shirt looked at him with a curious smirk on his face.

The Chuunin was annoyed. He knew the Genin wouldn't pose too much trouble but still, the brat had forced him to abort his attack.

"What do you think you can do against me punk? If you want to die, you'll just have to wait. I'll be with you in a minute."

"Che, how troublesome. I'm tired of you guys so let's get this over with," Shikamaru sighed.

While Ino went to help Hinata and Sasuke, the shadow user went looking for Tazuna and Otara. He was just in time to prevent the ape to be defeated, leaving the bridge builder defenceless against the Iwa Chuunin.

While he stepped out of the bushes into the small clearing, Shikamaru saw the man opposite him preparing himself for a jutsu.

Soon enough his hand seals were completed when the Stone nin threw an oversized boulder towards him.

"**Doton - Doryou Dango!" **(Earth Element - Mud Ball)

The large boulder flew directly towards Shikamaru, who looked petrified at the flying piece of rock. He gathered some chakra to his feet and jumped away. He cursed when he realised he had miscalculated the speed of the attack and found himself unable to dodge in time. As the boulder crashed into him and knocked him away, the shadow user screamed in agony.

A huge cloud of dust and smoke appeared around the area of the attack. Trees were pulled out of the ground by the sheer size of the boulder before the whole area was swallowed by the cloud.

"Jeez, pathetic Leaf shinobi," the Stone ninja sneered. He focused his attention back on the ape, ready for the kill. He made is way towards the animal when suddenly his body stopped in its tracks.

"What the….?"

"**Kagemane no Jutsu**…. success," was heard from behind him.

Shikamaru stood there, smirking.

"You didn't think it would be that easy to defeat me, did you?" he asked.

"But… but I killed you with that jutsu," the man stammered. Then he gasped in realisation. "A shadow clone."

"Hmph, for someone from a clan which uses shadows fore their techniques, I'd be a stupid not to know how to create shadow clones don't you think?"

The trapped man was confused. "A mere Genin like you shouldn't e able to perform a Jounin-rank technique like that."

"Pffff, ignorant fool!" Shikamaru retorted in annoyance. As I explained, my clan uses shadows. Therefore, creating shadow clones is much easier and less taxing for people like me. You clearly underestimated me and overestimated yourself."

Before the man could reply, he saw Otara approaching him. His cream was short lived as the ape delivered a strong open-handed strike to his neck. A sickening crack was heard and the man's head fell forward.

Shikamaru released his Kagemane no Jutsu, letting the dead body of the Stone Chuunin fall the ground.

He looked up at the ape, who nodded in appreciation before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

Shikamaru scanned the area, looking for Tazuna, who had just come out from his hiding place.

"Everything alright Tazuna-san?" he asked the older man.

"Yes, I didn't think I would get out of this alive," the bearded man answered. "I'm sorry; I have put you kids through a lot by deceiving you with this mission. I hope you can forgive me."

Shikamaru released a deep sigh. "That is of no concern now. Let's go find the others and wait until our sensei comes to pick us up. We don't know what's happened to him and Haku-san."

With that the two figures started walking back into the forest.

Three Stone Jounin stood around in a half open part of the forest. Two of their colleagues had been defeated already and lay dead in the forest. In front of them stood a single Leaf Jounin, Uzumaki Hitomi Naruto. The Uzumaki clan was seen as the nail in Iwagakure's coffin since the last Great Shinobi War. Uzumaki Arashi, at that time one of the top Jounin of the Leaf had slain over fifty Jounin from their village with his signature technique Shunshin no Jutsu, earning him the infamous nickname "Konoha's Yellow Flash."

Now, little over twelve years after his famous death, his only son and heir to the Uzumaki bloodline limit stood in from of them. The two dead Jounin had lost their lives through the technique which made his father famous, Shunshin no Jutsu.

The blonde Jounin looked at the three in front of him. Inside he was worried sick about his students and friend Haku. He prayed they would be okay and somehow make it out of this mess alive. He pushed those thoughts about the others from his mind. His first task was to survive this ordeal himself.

"Why do you want me dead so badly?" he asked them. "I have never killed any Stone nin until this very day. People die in wars. Have you ever thought about all the people you killed during that same war, all the bloodline limits that have disappeared because of that? It is no different than my father killing your men, it is part of war."

"SILENCE!" the leader of the three roared. "That worthless piece of shit has killed more people than anyone else. He killed people from every family and caused so many children to become orphans. We hate him and his clan. We will not rest until you are dead, you filthy piece of low life trash!"

Naruto's face remained straight. "Look at your comrades. Do you really want to follow them to hell? I have no intention to fight you. However if you continue to attack me, I will have no choice but to kill you as well. Otherwise, I'd like to make my leave and find my students and my friend."

"HAHAHAHAHA!" the leader laughed. Those brats are already dead. Do you really think that 4 lowly Genin and a medium summon can stand up against three experienced Chuunin? Also, that friend of yours us up against none other than the 'Demon of the Bloody Mist'. He'll be dead soon, like YOU!"

Immediately the three started attacking again. Engaging in taijutsu, they tried to corner the blonde prodigy, who unfortunately was too good and too quick to be cornered that easily. After a few minutes of engaging each other, the Stone Jounin halted to reassess the situation.

"You're good, I'll admit that." Still, you stand no chance against our combined effort. Not even your father's bloodline limit can save you here brat."

Naruto smiled confidently. Theses guys were just asking for a lesson.

"Since you guys like my Gekke Genkai so much, I'll make it up to you. I'll follow in my father's footsteps and finish you now with the very technique that hurt your village so much before."

The three started at him in anger. When they noticed him biting his thump an performing some seals with just one hand they swallowed.

"**Kuchiyose no Jutsu"**

Expecting an animal of sorts, they were shocked to see the boy in front of them holding a long piece of rope with dozens of strange kunai attached to them in his hands.

It didn't take them long to recognise those kunai. Everyone in Iwagakure knew the kunai that had cost them dearly. These were the exact same kunai that were used against them by the Yondaime Hokage.

Now even swallowing was becoming too difficult…

"Let me explain something to you," Naruto started. "The technique that killed your men wasn't Shunshin no Jutsu as you've grown to believe. Listen carefully as I perform this technique as it will be the last thing you will ever hear."

Naruto jumped high up in the air while rotating rapidly. He let go of one of the ends of the rope, causing the special kunai to fall of the rope one by one and hurl themselves towards the ground at high speeds.

Upon landing Naruto noticed his enemies' shocked and scared faces. The whole area was covered with the kunai, sticking in the ground, bushes, trees…everywhere.

He smirked in content as he performed another set of one-handed seals.

"**Ninpou: Hiraishin no Jutsu!" **(Flying God of Thunder)

All the three Stone Jounin could see was a vanishing blonde Leaf Jounin. Leaping from kunai to kunai, Naruto chose not to teleport himself to the kunai in front of them just yet. Instead, he opted to create some confusion first. It was the first time he would use this technique in battle, so he chose to be extra careful.

The three could only see brief images of their opponent, who was darting all over the area, keeping his distance. They had positioned themselves in a triangular formation, giving them the best chance of survival. All of them were turning their heads around at high speeds, trying to locate his next destination. All they could do was hold their weapons in hand and hope they would notice in time if he chose to appear in front of them.

Suddenly, the leader heard a scream coming from behind him. When he turned he saw one of his men collapsing. Looking closer he saw a deep stab wound in the man's chest, bleeding profusely. He instantly knew the man was dead.

Now standing back to back, they looked around, sweat covering their bodies. Again, they saw their opponent appearing at random points all over the area. When Naruto appeared right in front of them leader himself, faking a hit, the man shrieked in surprise. His comrade quickly turned around to help the man when he felt a kunai being embedded into his temple. Not even able to make a sound he fell to ground against the legs of his partner.

Feeling something hit his leg, the remaining Jounin turned to see his final partner dead next to him. All alone now, fear of death started to take over. Thirty meters in front of him, Naruto appeared and remained.

"I-I will let you go this time so stop fighting me," he pleaded. "I will inform my leaders to stop the attacks on you, I promise."

Naruto snorted. "If after twelve years you are still trying to kill people from my clan, I don't think your village will ever stop. You are nothing but a bunch of hypocrites. What you are doing is childish since you killed just as many people as we did. Our villages may not have been on good terms since; we have never held anyone from Hidden Stone responsible for our victims from that war and the things that happened in it. There is no way you will leave this place alive so stop your cowardice and at least die like a man, that is the least you can do after having lived a moronic life, pursuing a hypocrite and foolish goal."

"Che, whatever," the man mumbled. "You are the last of your clan. Other will follow my example and chase you until you are finally dead. Then, the Uzumaki will finally be no more and the world will be rid of your disgusting bloodline limit!"

As soon as those final words had left the man's mouth, Naruto vanished once again and suddenly stood right in front of him.

"Game over," Naruto spoke thrusting his kunai into the Stone nin's throat. The final enemy's eyes bulged as he gurgled due to the blood in his lunges. He soon fell down dead.

The fight was finally over.

Naruto took a deep breath and walked away from the battlefield. He moulded some of Kyuubi's chakra, enhancing his senses in an attempt to locate the chakra signatures of the others. He soon noticed Haku's presence nearby and jumped off towards him.

Upon arriving he saw his friend standing over the body that once belonged to Momochi Zabuza. The nukenin from the mist had water needles sticking out from every part of his body, blood seeping out from his mouth and ears.

"Are you alright Haku-kun?" he asked the boy next to him.

"Hai Naruto-kun, I'm fine. He got what he deserved. I can finally let go of the past now."

Naruto understood what he meant. Even though Haku had found his smile again during his stay in Konoha, part of him was still in pain over what happened when he was younger, the soulless tool Zabuza wanted to make of him.

"Let's go find the others, I felt their chakra nearby. They are still alive although I don't know about their injuries. During my fight I felt my summon leaving so either he dispelled himself or he was defeated."

Haku looked up to Naruto. "What happened during your fight Naruto-kun? Do you need any healing?"

"Iyé Haku-kun, they couldn't hurt me. Even then I'd still have Kyuubi to fix me up," the blonde answered with a smile on his face.

Naruto and Haku eyed the four Genin and Tazuna. As soon as they arrived they felt the depressing aura in the air. Hinata was still in tears, Ino behind her. Shikamaru was tending to Sasuke, who had just regained consciousness. The Nara boy himself looked exhausted and had a pained look on his face.

Naruto walked towards the bridge builder. "Everything okay Tazuna-san?"

The man nodded. "I'm fine Naruto-kun. These kids are remarkable. In a combined effort they managed to defeat the three enemies."

Naruto looked at the man with a questioning look on his face. "What's with the depressed atmosphere then?"

Tazuna paused for a second, collecting his thoughts. From what I understood from their stories. They split up in two pairs of two to face one enemy each. Your ape protected me against the third person. Apparently the girl there and that boy were forced to kill those men. Your summon killed the last after working together with the same boy who had killed one of the men before," he finished, pointing at Hinata and Shikamaru.

Naruto nodded. Now he understood their pain. It had been their first kill. Even though it is never something to be happy with, he couldn't help feeling a slight sensation of pride. Killing, no matter how terrible it is, is part if the life of a shinobi. There is a first time for everyone. The slight pride he felt had to do with the realisation that these four Genin could handle themselves well and knew what had to be done.

Now that the fighting was finally over, Naruto went over to his students to take care of them. Haku was already healing the girls' injuries. Naruto walked up to Shikamaru and a groggy Sasuke and used the skills he had learned from his kaa-san all those years ago. When everyone was physically capable of travelling, the group started moving towards Tazuna's house.

Five weeks have passed since that faithful day when the bridge, connecting Wave Country and Fire Country, was finally finished.

The battle wounds had healed and Hinata and Shikamaru, be it with great difficulty, have managed to put the mental ache that comes with a first kill behind them.

The days were filled training and guarding Tazuna and the other bridge builders. Even though Zabuza ad the Stone nin were defeated, there was still the threat from Gatoh and his thugs.

Every day, either Naruto or Haku would guard the bridge along with 2 Genin, while the others trained in a nearby forest. Hinata enjoyed learning ijustsu (medical) from Haku, while the others were learning some useful Suiton jutsus from the medic-nin. Naruto trained them in taijutsu mainly, promising them that he would teach them a couple of new jutsus as soon as they got back to Konoha.

One day, Gatoh turned up with a horde of thugs carrying samurai swords. From the way they held themselves, it was clear that they did not possess much skills, their appearance was mainly a front to scare off anyone who dared to oppose the corrupt shipping magnate. He wasn't aware that Zabuza had died weeks before and didn't stand a chance against an enraged Naruto, who made quick work of his death. When the demon vessel was about to finish off the thugs, the villagers, lead by a smiling Inari arrived at the bridge, scaring the harmless thugs away through the sheer amount of villagers present.

The whole village had come at the bridge to express their gratitude to the Konoha shinobi.

Tazuna walked up a makeshift wooden stage and put his hands in the air.

"Dear people, be quiet for a second."

Soon, everyone was silent, looking at bridge builder expectantly.

"We have gathered here on this fine day to say goodbye to six extraordinary people from Konohagakure no Sato. These six, still young enough to be called children, accepted a mission they were not ready for, even after being deceived.

A murmur went through the crowd. Some were confused by these words, other had heard of what Tazuna had said to the mission office in Konoha.

"STILL…" Tazuna raised his voice to be heard by all. "…They continued to protect me on our way here. All of them fought hard to keep me safe against enemies stronger than them."

Cheers erupted from the crowd. The people close to the shinobi frantically shook hands and thanked the group.

"We…" Tazuna continued. "We owe everything to these fine people. They have given us the chance to rebuild our country, to make it prosper once again. Let them be an example to us. We may not be strong individually, but as a community we can defy anyone. We can have the power to stand up against our oppressors and fight for our way of life."

The cheering continued when Tazuna moved towards a large object, standing at the foot of the bridge. It was hidden from view by a large curtain. The bridge builder held the curtain in his hands as he spoke once again.

"From this day forth, this bridge shall be known as the 'Konoha Bridge'."

With that, he pulled the curtain down. A large monument was now visible, shaped like a giant leaf. Inside the leaf, the Konoha symbol was embedded. Underneath the leaf carving, a plaque displayed a message.

'_To commemorate Uzumaki Hitomi Naruto, Uzumaki Haku, Hyuuga Hinata, Uchiha Sasuke, Yamanaka Ino and Nara Shikamaru_. _Six brave heroes from Konohagakure no Sato, who fought for the lives and future of a whole nation.'_

Once the cheering and applauding had stopped, Tazuna announced one last thing.

"Let this day be known as the 'Day of the Leaf'. From now on this day will be marked by a nationwide festival to honour our saviours."

The crowd voiced its acceptance as it slowly started to disperse. Tazuna walked towards the Naruto and the rest of the group.

"How can I ever thank you enough for all you have done for us?" he said, his voice obscured by a lump in his throat.

"It's alright Tazuna-san." Naruto answered. "Make sure this nations prospers again soon and continue to stand up for what you believe in. If you want to help Konoha, request missions from us in the future as well…. Just make sure you'll tell us what to expect next time," he finished with a mocking smile on his face.

Tazuna smiled at the group. "I certainly will my friends. Again, please accept my deepest apologies for all the trouble I have caused you. I'll make sure that as soon as we have the money, I will send you the rest of the mission payment we owe you."

The group exchanged their last greetings and waved goodbye.

"Be sure to come back soon. Wave Country will always welcome you!" Tazuna shouted to the group, who smiled as hey started their journey home.

"_Grow stronger and become leaders of your village my friends. Konoha should be proud to have you amongst its ranks,"_ Tazuna thought as he saw the group disappearing from view. He then turned around and walked off the bridge, into the new future that has been given to his country.

Surrounded by his friends and students, Naruto felt very proud. He could finally say he was happy being a Jounin instructor and that he understood his mother's reasoning when she informed him of his new job.

"Guys, let me tell you that I am extremely proud of all of you, Sasuke, Ino, Shikamaru and Hinata," he said as he looked at all his students. You have grown immensely over the past six weeks and you have shown everyone that you are perfectly capable of handling yourselves in battle."

Then he looked at Haku. "Haku-kun, thank you for helping us out. Without you, we wouldn't have come out of this as healthy as we are now."

The others smiled at their leader.

Suddenly, Naruto got a sadistic glare on his face.

"As a reward, because you've all grown so much, I think I will train you even harder from now on!"

"AAAAAAAAAW NOOOO! How troublesome!" everyone yelled at once.

"Uh uh uh guys, you know what that means, double punishment for all of you for complaining when we get back." He snickered again before adding, " …wearing heavier weighted suits…"

"AAAAAAAAAAARGGGGGG!" was heard in a ten kilometre radius.

Holding his belly in laughter, Naruto continued to lead the group back home.

Back at the site where the group had battled a couple of weeks ago, 5 Stone Jounin inspected the area.

"There's no mistake in this. This is the work of that blasted Uzumaki Hitomi Naruto," one man said.

"How can you be so sure?" another man asked.

"These kunai. There were used by the man who later became Yondaime Hokage during the last Great Shinobi War. They are used for his bloodline limit, which killed many of our forces."

"Oh… right," was the only answer.

The man looked up from his musing, eyes blazing furiously.

"This means war!"

**A/N**

**That's it for now. Again my apologies for the long wait. I made this chapter extra long to make it up. **

**In the nearby future, there will be some romance. I have not completely decided on Naruto's pairing yet. Although I might have given you the idea that it will be Temari through previous chapters, I am still undecided between Temari and Kurenai. **

**I will not make this a vote, but I want you to give me a good reason to go for either one of them. Convince me, give me a good reason to go for either one of them**

**Let me know what you thought of this chapter, reviews are always appreciated.**

**Ja ne!**


	11. A legacy explained

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto**

**Chapter 11: A legacy explained**

"Arigatou ji-san, itadakimasu."

It had been a while since Uzumaki Naruto savoured the taste of Ichiraku ramen. If for any reason he would ever have to renounce his shinobi career, he would surely try and become the first ramen hermit, travelling the lands and try every type of ramen in existence. Until then, his favourite ramen stand in Konoha would have to do.

For the first time in months, he had some time off his role as Genin instructor. Two days ago, his team started their Chuunin exam. Currently, the four of them were trying to pass the second stage of the exam, a five-day scroll hunt in training area forty-four, dubbed 'The Forest of Death'. During his short break, Naruto planned to get some long overdue training done. Even though he trained his physique alongside his team, he felt slightly rusty while doing his own routine.

He had been looking forward to the Chuunin exam greatly. He had entered his team, knowing that the chances of them actually getting the promotion were small. Still, the experience could prove invaluable. His team was trained beyond the normal Genin curriculum, but as Konoha hosted the exam this time, other villages would only send their strongest teams to appear strong. The hosting village normally enrolled more teams since it was easier and cheaper to do so. Therefore, it had more chances to have people in the final exam, a tournament where many high placed officials would be attending to witness the new generation of shinobi. Had this exam been held elsewhere, he would not have let his students take part.

Another reason to be happy the exams were held here was because it gave him a chance to see his friends from the Sand again. Their four man team arrived only shortly before the exam started. The last time he saw Gaara and his siblings was almost a year ago, when his ANBU squad was in Wind Country on a mission. He wondered how Gaara's training was progressing, now that his seal was complete. Maybe he should train his rudimentary pupeteering skill to prank Kankurou.

His final thought lingered longer, as it was on Temari. When they last met, he was teaching her some useful Fuuton skills and how to handle her battle fan. Her prowess with it was increasing but at that time, she still needed to work quite a bit to be useful on a C rank mission. Outside training, they seemed to be getting along just fine, becoming fast friends. Their playful banter was endless, shocking many in the Sand. After all, Temari's temper was notorious and not many people had the nerve to offend the daughter of the Kazekage. Naruto however, was oblivious to these kind of things, speaking his mind more often than considered healthy. All in all, when the two of them were in a room, there was never be a dull moment.

Briefly interrupting his reminiscing, he ordered his third bowl of miso ramen. Unfortunately, he was not able to meet them before the start of the exam. The day before the first test, he was sent on a solo B rank mission to escort a minor daimyo back to his palace in an outside province of Fire Country. Having come back only today, he would have to wait until the second exam was finished, before he could meet up with them.

"What do you want Ero-sennin?" Without bothering to mask his presence, Jiraiya had entered the stall.

"I thought I told you to stop calling me that brat! Half the continent respects me for my greatness and some brat like you does nothing but insult the legendary me!"

Of course Jiraiya knew perfectly well that coming from Naruto's mouth, that nickname means more than just its meaning, just like him saying 'brat' should be understood rather affectionately.

"We need to talk brat, follow me."

Naruto, grumbling at the unwanted interruption, paid his debt to Teuchi, gave him a half-hearted wave and left the stand with his mentor. The pair travelled over the roof tops, through the village towards the outskirts.

0o0o0o0

They stopped on top of the ninja academy and sat down, overlooking the playground. Some of the younger children were playing on a large grass field. Behind the large fence surrounding the field, a target practice pitch was set up. Many children, instructed by the academy teachers, were practicing their aim with dummy shuriken. Normally, children attended the academy for five years, enrolling at the tender age of seven. Since kunai were more difficult to manage, the first three years of schooling did not contain any training with the lethal ninja knives. The class currently using the area was probably a first or second year group as the wooden throwing stars were piled up in a messy heap around the dummy and stuck in the wooden fence behind it.

"So what did you want to talk about Ero-sennin?"

"Tsunade, Sarutobi-sensei and I discussed your situation, in particular concerning your not-so-human tenant." At this Naruto looked up in surprise. The demon fox sealed inside him had until now been a scarcely mentioned topic.

"What about her? I have not spoken to her since you took me inside my mind all those years ago." Feigning ignorance, Naruto had an inkling as to what Jiraiya was going to say next.

"The three of us feel it is time for you to speak with her again and pick up your training once more. If you remember, the last time we spoke with her, she told you that your body was not ready for any reasonable amount of her chakra, let alone techniques. Seeing your growth since, I want us to go back and ask if anything has changed since."

Naruto did not look up. He knew something like this was coming. Ever since he first found out about the demon fox being sealed inside his belly, by his own father at that, the thought itself filled him with an uneasy sensation. Not thinking about it had been to be the best course of action. He knew he already had access to a fraction of demon chakra, although he only uses it on special occasions, when it would only serve an important purpose.

He had been given an indication as to what was waiting for him in the future. During their last visit, Kyuubi had told them about her reasons for coming to ningenkaii. Apparently, some sort of big, bad, powerful demon decided that this planet would be good to start his rule. If a demon lord like Kyuubi was not strong enough to defeat this creature, what was he supposed to do if arguably the most powerful shinobi ever was not even capable of defeating her?

Naruto sighed. So many things unknown, so may questions. Sure, he was powerful on his own accord. Which other twelve year old could say he was stronger than eighty percent of the shinobi populous across the elemental continent? In terms of skill, he was already much further than most others could only aspire to reach. The one aspect that was holding him back at the moment, was his lack of experience. Skill wise he should be able to push Kakashi to his limit. Still, in every spar he was shown his own deficiencies as his former mentor won each and every bout. The difference between them was that Kakashi has been working as a Jounin for around sixteen years, compared to just a couple for him. It is in that light, that Naruto sometimes questions the decision his adopted mother made by putting him in charge of a group of fresh Genin. Truth to be told, he did like the job now. At first, he was sceptical about what this would do to his own development. After all, personally he has nothing to gain from D or C-rank missions. He had a great position within ANBU, the opportunity to go on countless high ranked missions and more time to train by himself. In retrospect, seeing the way his team has developed and the great time he is having with his age peers has to be worth something. For someone who has been surrounded by people much older than himself for most of his life, this was a worthwhile change for him.

"Fine, let's go."

An unusual sequence of hand seals later, Naruto and Jiraiya found themselves in front of a majestous pair of gates. Red chakra seeped out through the bars and a distant noise could be heard from inside the giant prison. Naruto noticed the small piece of paper, the word seal embedded in it. The gate seemed to stretch further than was visible to the eyes. Despite his previous visit, the place still appeared unreal to him. After all, the concept of a gigantic creature sealed inside a much smaller one is not something easily understood.

Upon closing in on the gate, a large pair of eyes became visible, followed by the huge outline of the nine-tailed demon lord.

"**Uzumaki Naruto, after all those years we meet again."**

Naruto swallowed. He wondered how on earth this supposedly female demon could have such a deep voice. He briefly entertained the thought of what the male counterparts would sound like. He looked straight at the imposing form of the fox, reminding himself this creature was the sole reason he was an orphan. Not wanting to sound intimidated, he steeled his voice.

"Kyuubi."

"**I am surprised to see your calm demeanour boy. I remember the last time you were here and saw me for the first time. You have grown."**

Jiraiya saw Naruto's balled fists. He knew his companion was trying hard to control his emotions.

"We did not come to socialise. We want to know if Naruto will be able to use your chakra without losing control or sustaining damage."

Kyuubi looked down at the young Jounin standing in front of her cage, teeth clenched and hands still balled up.

"**Your progress as a shinobi has been remarkable, young one. Before we discuss your use of my chakra, I wish to tell you my full story from the beginning. Your hatred for me is quite apparent. With it, you will not be able to control my chakra well enough."**

Now Naruto had had enough. How dare she tell him to control himself better where she was concerned.

"Why would I want to listen to you, you bitch! You took my parents from me. You are the reason some people look at me with hatred in their eyes because you killed their loved ones! Why would I even want to use your foul and poisonous chakra. I have plenty myself and can do without yours just fine!"

If he did not know any better, he could have sworn he saw a hint of sadness in the demon's eyes.

"**True, too true. Still, you have heard of my reason to come to this realm. I only ask for you to listen to what I have to say. I know what I have done to you. After I have explained everything to you, you can judge me and walk out. I only ask for that."**

"Let her speak Naruto, you do not know all there is to this story. I have read the reports of the attack. Your father spoke with Kyuubi before he sealed her inside you," Jiraiya said. He knew what Kyuubi had done, the risk she took by coming to Konoha.

Naruto gave him an angry look. He took a deep breath before looking up again.

"Fine," he spat. "You'd better tell me everything this time because if I do not like what I hear you will never see me here again!"

"**A fair deal young one. Let me begin by telling you something about my world. Demons have been around since the beginning of time. When the Gods created your universe or ningenkaii, they realised that some creatures would eventually grow to become strong. Conflict would arise and war would come to the planets. Normally, a simple war would not bother anyone. The Gods saw it as a mere correctional measure when things had gone awry."**

"**Each universe needs balance. Without it, it would collapse. Therefore, the Gods created Makai, the demon realm so it could be used to balance ningenkai."**

Naruto looked thoughtful. "You are saying that you can balance us out, but doesn't that mean that we can't do the same in your realm?"

"**Very perceptive indeed. What you are saying is true in theory. The reason I did not mention this is because in Makai, we do not need to have our balance adjusted. You see, Makai was created as a violent universe; with oppression, violence and all you call evil. Ningenkai, on the other hand, is supposed to be the light. A universe where its species live peacefully."**

This time Jiraiya had a question. "Why, if our realm is supposed to be peaceful, did none of you show up during our Great Ninja Wars? It was far from peaceful you know."

"**Hahaha," Kyuubi laughed out loud. "Do you think these pesky battles you call a war count as a threat to unbalancing a universe? Your realm has violence and battles like mine has acts of good just the same, like my care for my clan. The point is that in my universe, good cannot overwhelm evil, like evil cannot overwhelm good in yours. When such a thing happens, someone from the opposite realm is sent to set things straight. It has happened once before when I amongst others was sent to this universe, this planet even, to rid it from a whole civilisation which had been trying to destroy each other for millennia through technological warfare. They even created bombs that could kill everyone in this village and make it inhabitable for up to fifty years. Not even your strongest fighters could do anything about this. We installed such a fear in the survivors to steer away from as much technology as possible that instead they started to focus on human evolution. That's how people learned to use their chakra. In those days rarely anyone was in touch with their inner ki. Some people had slight kinetic abilities like bending metal objects, but surely no one was able to create a giant water dragon or anything remotely close to it. To be frank, we have been surprised that you humans have been allowed to form ninja communities in the first place, since it promotes violence and war. It seems that the powers that be judged it too insignificant to correct for the time being"**

Both shinobi silently wondered what such a world had looked like. The thought of bombs they even their strongest could not fight against unsettled them greatly. On the other hand, knowing that no one could use chakra to even create a simple henge was a laughable thought. These days, about fifteen percent of the people on the elemental continent was able to at least mould chakra to a small extend. Whatever happened outside the continent was virtually unknown since most who attempted to travel outside it either died or came back disillusioned as they never found anything but water. Still, they had heard the odd story about other civilisations, but it seemed less developed than theirs, thus hardly interesting.

Jiraiya was the first to break from his inner musings. "Alright, so you have been able to stop this development. Fact is that your kind is much stronger than we are. Our strongest would not be able to kill you and we don't even know how powerful you are compared to others from your world. We have had the occasional oni appearing but they were nowhere in strength compared to you or any of the tailed demons. What I don't understand is how we could do anything in your world, should it be necessary. You would destroy us before we even got the chance.

"**For one of the stronger worms on this planet, you are very dense human. As your friend Hatake said, look underneath the underneath! It is all about balance. We are far stronger than you on this planet like you are much stronger than us on our planet."**

Now the silence was deafening loud. Both Naruto and Jiraiya looked at Kyuubi in disbelief. They were stronger than a nine-tailed demon in its own universe? Jiraiya in particular had heard reports of attacks by tailed demons and the path of destruction they left.

"**Your astonishment is amusing, but yes, it is true. I am indeed one of the strongest fighters in my own realm. Still, back home, one of your average Chuunin would be able to at least push me a bit as their powers will be enhanced a hundred fold, while mine are reduced by the same amount. You..."** he looked Jiraiya in the eyes. **"...could cause the same amount of chaos there as I can here. The boy can be compared to his friend's demon, Shukaku, who is no match for me but can still fight on par with a Kage on this planet."**

Naruto was about to say something, but was cut of by Kyuubi.

"**The demons that have come to this planet before have all been summoned by humans through sacrificial rituals, killing thousands of people. We have done the same in the past, before we were sent over here to destroy the old ways of human kind. Our biggest capture was the summoning of the most powerful leader of that time, I believe he was called a president in those days. We only managed to summon his ethereal spirit. His death was never explained, so in the end their council decided to explain his soulless body by claiming he was assassinated the moment we summoned him, which I believe was during a parade of sorts. Getting him to makai cost us over ten thousand oni. Even though he was a useless warrior, his leading capabilities proved very useful after his soul was sealed inside one of the leaders of my world. Things were getting a bit too peaceful and through his strong leadership we had the greatest war of all time. Aaah, those were the days... I was still young and managed to earn myself three tails during that war."**

"Great to hear you had a good time, now tell me why you came and why you chose Konoha of all places. If you had done your homework, you would have noticed that we were not the most powerful village anymore after the last war with Stone. The Hidden Mist village was stronger that us at that time. Why did you have to kill so many of us? Compared to other villages we are the most peaceful one"

Kyuubi was silent for a short while, as though organising her thoughts before continuing.

"**Every so often, disagreements arise between the Gods. There have always been four Gods with equal powers. As everything needs to be balanced, so were they, two good and two evil, a male and a female on each side. For hundreds of millennia, they were able to co-exist we relative ease. A century ago, a feud between one of the evil Gods and the two good ones got out of hand. As his female evil colleague refused to get involved, he quickly lost the battle between them. Gods are immortal essentially and can only be killed by their own kind, but before his spirit was destroyed, he fled to makai. This turned him into a mortal being and let him retain only that amount of power he had left after his battle. Although no match for the Gods, he was still more powerful than any of us and soon became the leader of makai."**

"**You may ask why the remaining Gods never finished their job. This is because they agreed at the beginning of time that divine intervention should be prevented at all costs. They each sacrificed an equal part of their powers to create a new God, who had the same knowledge as them. Divine intervention was found unnecessary since now that he was mortal, he could be killed in battle and would at some point come to perish like all of us. After a couple of decades under his rule, we had enough of his ways, which were to cruel even by our own standards and revolted against him. Even he could not stand against our numbers and summoned himself to ningenkai. Self-summoning is far more taxing than being summoned so after we found out what he had done, we asked the Gods what to do. They informed us that he was severely weakened and hid himself. As the leader of the revolt, I was held responsible for this threat to our universal imbalance and was ordered to come to this planet to search for this fallen God. I have been here for forty years now and unsuccessful in finding him. It seems he has covered his tracks well. I suspect he put himself in a state of hibernation, waiting for his powers to return to him. I knew I could not defeat him by myself when is back at his full power, so I did the only thing I could do: I searched for the most powerful human warrior to offer my powers in a sealing ritual."**

"**On my way to Konoha, I witnessed some humans hunting for foxes. Seeing this as an act of great evil I saw it upon me to purge this threat and attacked their village and any other from which I caught people doing the same. In my rage I did not notice I had reached your village, though it would not have made a difference since they deserved to be punished for hunting my kind anyway. Only when I faced your father did I notice where I was. As a leader should, your father tried to kill me but could not. It was then that I explained the real reason for my 'visit'. It wasn't until I forced my memories into his brain that he believed me, not that I can blame him. I told him about my knowledge of your fast approaching birth and your potential to become truly great. It was then when he made the valiant decision to sacrifice himself to seal me inside you. After seeing my memories, he realised that being selfish and refuse would eventually result in evil winning here, thus enabling evil to push its way through. This would cause an imbalance in ningenkai which even we cannot overcome, in the end negating all life, both in your realm and mine."**

Naruto was speechless. He was supposed to become the strongest human? What kind of ridiculous claim was that? How can one know these things before someone was born anyway? It isn't like coming from a talented family would mean that he would be a strong shinobi as well. During her explanation, Kyuubi had been feeding both him and Jiraiya fragments of her memory. Now he understood his father's decision. Nobody expected his mother to die in labour so Arashi thought that she would at least be able to raise him. Still, just because some stupid Gods refused to solve the problems they created themselves, he lost his father and was stuck with a sealed demon and a legacy he would not wish upon his worst enemy.

Jiraiya's mind was spinning as well. Before today, he knew only a fragment of what he was hearing now. Like Naruto, he believed Kyuubi's story but believing it doesn't have to make it any easier to deal with. One big question was stuck in his mind since the demon started her explanation. "Why do you know so much about our universe while we know so little about yours?" he asked.

"**Simple," Kyuubi replied. "There has been no need for you to know more. The risk of us falling to good is virtually non-existent whereas it is much more likely for you to fall to evil. Until now, there has never been a reason for any of you to step in because our balance is much steadier than yours. The current situation is the first time someone from ningenkai is needed to resolve a demon issue, albeit in your own universe."**

"If you are saying that the Gods gave up part of their powers to create a new one so they could balance their power again, wouldn't that mean that if they did that a couple of times, they would become weaker than some species?"

Kyuubi looked at Jiraiya in shock, then started laughing uncontrollably.

"**Understand this human. At their current power, their strength relates to their fallen comrade, who is the strongest mortal in either realm, like mine does to a new born baby here. In other words, you cannot begin to understand the difference. As I said before, they avoid intervention until there is absolutely no choice as their presence in either realm could have devastating results even they do not know about. The only reason our current enemy was able to pull it off was because he was already weakened so much that his powers could not be classified as God-like anymore. Should we fail to defeat him, they will have to step in, despite the risks. If we cannot do it, no mortal will ever be able to."**

"What is this demon's name?" Jiraiya asked. "Knowing how to call it would simplify things for now."

"**Balkenende..."**

"What kind of name is that?" Naruto yelled. "That sounds like nothing I have ever heard!"

"**He is a fallen God you fool! Do you expect them to have names like you and me?"**

"Speaking of which," Jiraiya retorted. "What is your name anyway? Kyuubi sounds more like a title. We know the Ichibi is called Shukaku. That would mean you have another name as well?"

"**Yes, Kyuubi is merely my title as it indicates my power level according to the number of tails I possess. Nine tails is the highest rank you can reach in my world. The moment I left for ningenkai, there were six nine-tailed demons in existence. I am the leader of the kitsune clan. Not every clan has a nine-tails amongst them. Compared to the other nine-tails, I am ranked only fourth. The strongest have always been the dragons, although they keep to themselves generally."**

"You did not answer his question," Naruto said. "What is your name then?"

"**Itzen."**

"Well then Itzen, my name is Jiraiya and of course you know Naruto's name. I suggest if we'll be speaking again from time to time we refrain from names like demon, brat, puny human and whatnot. You two are in this together. We will assist in whichever way we can of course, but you two need to work something out."

"**An acceptable proposition... Jiraiya. With your permission... Naruto, I would like to have the ability to have a stronger presence in your mind, which will enable us to communicate without you having to be here. This way, I can assist you better in your training and even during battles."**

Naruto thought this proposition over for a while. He saw the benefits in this, though the idea of a demon rummaging around in his mind wasn't a comforting one.

"I accept under the condition that you stay out of my thought when there is no need for it. No messing around or I will sever all lines of communication and never deal with you again. Is that clear?"

"**Yes, I swear. Like I have heard you saying, a kitsune never goes back on his word either. We are sneaky, resourceful and perhaps a bit bloodthirsty; never do we break our word when it was given in earnest."**

"Alright," Naruto clapped his hands, feeling strangely relieved. For years he had wondered about why things had led to his unique situation. Now he finally knew. Not that the truth was something to look forward to but at least now he knew. "So what's next? What kind of training do I have to do?"

"**Chakra manipulation..."** Kyuubi answered with an amused tone, earning himself two sweat drops from his audience. **"You need to learn to control my chakra. In essence, you have a foreign source of chakra inside you which, if used in larger quantities than you have done up until now, would fight your body violently for control. Demon chakra is much more volatile than its human equivalent, a result from you being essentially good and me evil. I cannot control it like I normally do when you mould it yourself and if I take over, your own chakra would fight mine, hence hindering my control. In short, releasing control to me would make you more powerful than you are at the moment since I am much more powerful, but my mind would be clouded in the same way as yours would be now. You could give any Kage a run for their money, but the results on your body would be devastating. Therefore, you will need to relearn to use chakra, starting like any other...in small amounts. Because of your experience with moulding your own chakra, I don't expect you to take long. Just bear in mind that as my chakra is more aggressive, you need to learn to cope with differences in chakra output, even when you mould a consistent amount. If you would try to walk up a tree, using my chakra, releasing only the right amount of chakra will not be sufficient. Its fluctuations will still cause you to fall off. It needs to become second nature to you, like moulding your own chakra has become to you."**

"Great, back to the academy I guess," Naruto grumbled. "I guess I'll start as soon as possible."

"Good," Jiraiya said as he gingerly jumped back on his feet. Naruto slowly followed his lead. "I will come back at some point and speak with you about his progress with your chakra. Have fun you two," he finished with a sadistic yet perverse wink, earning him a loud growl from Itzen and a concussion from Naruto as they left his mindscape.

0o0o0o0

That evening, Naruto's mood had changed completely. After his chat with Itzen, he went home to train his chakra control in the training grounds that belonged to his house. Soon though, he noticed one of the messenger birds used by the council soaring through the sky above him. Upon arriving at the Hokage tower, he was informed that his team was attacked by none other than Orochimaru. Sasuke was bitten by the snake sannin and had been unconscious for most of the day, just as Ino and Shikamaru, who were injured during their battle with the disguised traitor. When later, their team was attacked by the Sound team, Hinata valiantly defended her team mates but was only capable of incapacitating the two female members of their four man team team. Being injured by the others, she was losing quickly.

Thankfully, Lee with his team found her in time and defeated the two boys, who ran like rats in an earthquake. Naruto took part in the search for the man who killed many of his mother's family, but nothing was found, except for three life- and faceless corpses, belonging to the Grass Genin who were supposed to take part in the examinations.

His team was still taking part, despite their injuries. According to the ANBU, silently observing them, they seemed alright for the time being. There was still plenty of time to complete this stage successfully. The team's aim had always been reaching the end of the second test. After that, they might stand a chance in the final tournament or possibly the preliminaries if there were too many teams left to compete.

Sasuke's situation was a source of concern to him. Naruto knew of Orochimaru's cursed seal. From the ANBU's report, he immediately recognised what happened. Something would have to be done about it, or his student's mind would be poisoned, turning him into one of the snake's pawns. It did not surprise him, why the Uchiha had to receive the seal. Orochimaru was known for his desire to learn all the jutsu available and by having a sharingan, he would be able to pursue this goal much quicker. As soon as his team finished their business in the tower, located in the centre of the forest, he would take Sasuke away to see if he could do something about it.

From what he knew of Anko's seal, it worked as a crafty mind link; tricking the mind into more violent behaviour and an unhealthy obsession to obtain that what was desired by the wielder. In Sasuke's case, one needn't be an academic to understand what he wanted most: power. His student had made a lot of progress, become much more social, even friendly to those close to him. Still, the slaughtering of his clan all those years ago had caused a deep scar in his heart. Of course Orochimaru knew this. The question now was, what exactly he planned to do with Sasuke.

0o0o0o0

"We do not have much time, why did you need to speak to me this urgently?"

Jiraiya looked at the man in front of him. "First tell me if you have found out more about the goals of Akatsuki."

Itachi frowned. Surely that was not the main reason why the Sannin wanted to see him at this particular time. "Still the same. They are preparing to hunt down the tailed demons, both loose and sealed up."

Jiraiya nodded at this. He already knew the jinchuuriki, as well as the demons that had not been captured yet were targets to this organisation. What he did not understand was what they were planning to do with them. "Motives still unknown?"

'Yes," Itachi answered. "Kisame and I have found no new information regarding the reason. The leader has ordered us to travel around, finding more information about them and possibly any techniques that could be useful when dealing with them. I do not think it will be long before we are sent to start retrieving them."

"Have you found out who the leader is?"

"No, he keeps his distance. No one is allowed to actually see him, he only speaks with us from the shadows, no letting anyone go near him. Deidara made a comment last week, calling him shy because of his distant behaviour. He was punished dearly."

"Right," Jiraiya answered, processing this sliver of new information. He looked up from his position in the cave the were currently in. He had chosen to rendezvous just inside Canyon Country as it was close enough to Akatsuki's approximate lair, without getting too close. The were now standing in a small cave, visibly hidden by a small waterfall. Ever since the older Uchiha joined Akatsuki, he had tried to get more information on the whereabouts of Akatsuki. Their leader had used a virtually unknown, yet forbidden secrecy jutsu on everyone, making it impossible to tell anything about their base. The moment any member was heading for it, the jutsu would kick in as well, forcing them to make sure no one followed them. In short, whether or not Itachi wanted to reveal more, he simply couldn't talk about it or even lead anyone to it. Once, Jiraiya tried to follow Itachi unseen, but soon lost track of him. All he found out was that the spy had entered Canyon Country, before losing him after only a couple of minutes later.

"What was the real reason for this meeting Jiraiya-sama? I do not believe, hearing this qualifies the risk we are taking by meeting on such a short notice. We both know how precarious my situation is already. I do not want to jea..."

"Sasuke has been attacked by Orochimaru," he was cut off.

"WHAT?" Suddenly, the normally cool and collected Uchiha Itachi became loud and emotional. Almost nothing in the world could make this side of him come out. Sure, something as big as the destruction of Konoha could, but outside some major catastrophe, only matters relating to his younger brother had this kind of effect on him.

Jiraiya went on to explain what had happened during the second stage of the Chuunin exam. How the very person who killed his whole clan but two, once again had his eyes fixed on the Uchiha clan. His chakra flared for a second, before he had it back under control.

"Naruto will him in two days, when he finishes the second test. If he is not able to do something about the seal, I will look at it myself. We'll keep an eye on him. If we can't remove the seal straight away, all we can do is wait until Orochimaru plays his cards."

Itachi looked Jiraiya in the eye, sharingan unconsciously activated. They looked ruthless, steeled, and ready to be used. "Understand this Jiraiya-sama. Sasuke is the most important thing to me, all I have left in this world. You better keep a close eye on him and make sure nothing happens to him. If again, I have to choose between this assignment and my own brother, I will leave Akatsuki and come back to Konoha, regardless of the consequences."

Seeing his companion was being earnest, Jiraiya only nodded. "We will do whatever we can Itachi. In the meantime, you focus on your task. We need to know more before we can do something about them. If only we could do something about that damned secrecy jutsu on you. Can't your mangekyou break it?"

"I have tried that numerous times already, without apparent success. If now I try to talk to you about it, I feel a searing pain in my brain, combined with a feeling of utter terror. Even thinking about revealing it is almost too much already. If I attempt to open my mouth to say the words or write it down, I seem to lose all my willpower to do so. I am afraid we will have to find another way."

Feeling downcast at the bad news, Jiraiya put his hand on Itachi's shoulder, squeezing it gently. He understood the prodigy's predicament, feeling sorry he could not so anything about it for now. He could hear by the young man's voice and stiff wording that it bothered him to no end. _"No seventeen year old should have to speak that way,"_ he thought.

The two bid their farewells, exited the alcove and parted in opposite directions.

0o0o0o0o

Two days had passed and Naruto's team managed to pick up both scrolls required to pass. From the four of them, surprisingly three managed to win their preliminary match. Ino's injuries had prevented her from fighting at her best, making her lose to Kankurou and his puppet. In the main tournament, Hinata would be facing off against Kinuta Dosu, Sasuke was scheduled to fight against one of two Stone Genin who had made it through as well. Shikamaru however had the most interesting line-up, one Naruto was sure to watch with great interest as Temari was going to be his first opponent. After hearing the draw, he waved at his friends from the Sand, yelling he had to do something urgent and that he would come to see them as soon as possible. He quickly collected Sasuke and teleported him to his house in the Uchiha district.

0o0o0o0

"How are you feeling Sasuke?"

The person in question looked at his instructor, not sure what to say. "Mixed feelings I guess. On one hand I'm pissed because that dirty snake got his hands on me and giving me this seal. On the other hand, the power it gives me is astonishing. When I used it in the forest, I felt much stronger than normally."

The smirk on his student's face after the last comment worried Naruto. Even though he expected this result, he found it very discomforting.

"Remember who we are talking about here Sasuke. The man who gave you this cursed seal, I repeat _cursed_, is the same man who killed your clan. Do not consider it a present and refrain from using it at all times.

Hearing about his dead relatives and the one who caused it brought some sense back into him. He balled his fists, thinking about all he had lost because of one man's obsession. With his brother away on an undercover mission, spanning more than five years now, he had grown more focused towards revenge. Since he graduated from the academy, he managed to loose up a bit, mainly thanks to his instructor, who made him see the truth. He was years away from challenging the sannin-gone-bad and that his obsession towards this goal would only keep him from attaining it. He desperately needed a life, acting not so far beyond his age, friends... Naruto had promised him that when the time was right and they were both ready, they would go after the snake together as they had similar grounds for revenge.

Naruto interrupted his thoughts. "I will put another seal on top of it, which should help to keep it at bay. Still, it relies solely on your own will. Using it is considered a threat to the village and I don't know how much even I can do to keep you out of trouble."

"Cursed seals do not make you stronger Sasuke," he continued. "It will seem to you that you are stronger now, but in the long run, it will only stunt your growth. You will probably be watched from now on, at least until we find a way to deal with it. Be careful and I repeat, do _not_ use it. Is that understood?" he asked in a commanding voice he did not use often to his students.

Sasuke made a muffled noise, clearly not a hundred percent happy with the order. "Hai Naruto-sensei," he responded in an official tone, which saddened Naruto. Truth to be told, he understood his sensei's reasoning and could feel the malicious effect the seal had on him when he used it. He knew it would damage him. Yet, suddenly having experienced so much extra power, he didn't like the thought of parting with it again so quickly.

Naruto carefully prepared the sealing ritual, using a fine sealing brush to draw the necessary kanji with his own blood, taking extra care not to slip in any of his demonic chakra since he didn't know how it would react to the cursed seal. He certainly did not wish to find out now. He performed some hand seals and slammed his palm on the seal. After a few second of pure agony, Sasuke succumbed to unconsciousness. Naruto laid him down on his bed, closed the bedroom door and left for his own house.

The team was given a day off to recover from their time spent in the Forest of Death. The next day, they arrived at his house for their traditional pre-training breakfast. Ino was still in a sour mood, being the only one who did not manage to reach the tournament, which was to be held one month from now. When everyone was ready, Naruto lead them into his training grounds and turned to face them.

"First of all, let me congratulate you three," he said looking at Hinata, Sasuke and Shikamaru. "I did not expect any of you to reach this far. You have obviously grown a lot." At this Ino growled, feeling left out.

"Ino, there's nothing to be ashamed of. You were unlucky to face Kankurou. I have known him for a long time and he is no slouch. Also, you were clearly not at your best after five rough days in the forest. Kankurou on the other hand, made it to the tower within five hours, without any injuries. I'm sure you will do even better next time."

This seemed to calm the blond Genin down, she finally relaxed a bit and gave him a small smile.

"Now, you guys need to be trained more intensively for the next four weeks. I won't be able to do that for all four of you. That's why I have called in some help."

Ignoring the confused frowns from his students he went on to explain. "Until two days before the final exam, all four of you will report here in the morning for physical training as I need to do that anyway, so why not do it together. In the afternoon, Shikamaru will be trained by his father. I believe there are some things he wants to show you and before you even think about it, no complaining or you are in deep trouble!" he finished, earning himself a snicker from the others as the lazy Nara quickly covered his mouth before his infamous quote left his lips.

"Hinata, your father has demanded your presence for joined training with Neji. I was going to refuse him but I realised you would benefit a lot from it. I will make sure everything is going alright. Your father and I have not been on speaking terms for a while now. I know about his behaviour to you. If there is a problem, I need you to tell me immediately, understood?" he finished, receiving a small nod from a suddenly very nervous Hinata.

"Sasuke, with a lot of trouble, I have been able to get you the perfect instructor to train your sharingan. He is my old mentor, Hatake Kakashi. For reasons you are not allowed to know, he has a single sharingan in his left eye, covered up by his hitai-ate. I had to bribe him, but he has promised to see you in the afternoons. He has his own missions, from time to time, but he will be able to help you more with your doujutsu than I can. The same rule applies to your time with him as it does with me, no jutsu copying. You have to earn them. Just to let you know, he has a reputation for being late. If this happens, tell him I will personally put him on the 'Icha Icha' black list." He noticed the confused look on Sasuke's face. "Trust me, you don't want to know."

Finally, he turned to Ino. "As for you," he said with a smirk on his face. "I will train you for a couple of hours in the afternoon, though not as long as I would have wanted to. I have been ordered to train myself rigorously by the Hokage. After you finish with me, your father will take over."

Surprisingly, Ino smiled happily. It seemed she was very eager to improve. After all, private training sessions with Naruto would probably be exhausting, a daunting task to most people.

Having completed his explanation, he opened the big bag he had brought along with him and tossed four new weighted training suits to his students.

"You have all adapted well to the extra heavy suit I gave you after we finished the bridge mission. This suit however, is different than the ones you are used to. Though the initial weight is a lot heavier than the ones you currently wear, increased by twice the amount I normally give you, I placed another seal on it, which will affect your chakra in such a way that it becomes very difficult to release a constant amount of chakra. It will make your chakra output spike as well as hamper it to be less than intended."

Feeling apprehensive, they put on their new suits. Even though they tried to keep quiet, the amount of extra weight caused them to groan in unison.

Changing topic completely, Naruto turned serious and looked at his students intently. "You all know about my 'tenant' right?"

After overcoming their initial trouble over their new training suits, it was quickly replaced by Naruto mentioning Kyuubi. He had told them about her soon after the team formed. They took the news well, but after that it was never discussed again. Bringing it up so casually surprised them all.

"I have recently spoken with her, revealing a lot of new information about things that are none of your concern. All you need to know is that for the first time ever, I will be actively training while using her chakra. Demonic chakra is essentially different that its human equivalent in that it is very hard to control. If I use it, it will do the same thing as your suits, become inconsistent in output. I will have to relearn chakra control with it, starting with very small quantities. That is why I gave you these suits. Besides the obvious weight training it provides you with to make you faster and stronger, it will also force you to control your chakra even more than you already do. The better your chakra control is, the easier it becomes to learn new techniques."

Naruto saw the understanding in the eyes of his students. Apart from Shikamaru, the thought of being able to learn new jutsu easier, made them eager to start right away. Yet, he still sensed the unspoken question why he brought up the unsual topic of the demon sealed inside him.

"Guys," he chuckled. "your thoughts are so loud I can here them. You wonder why I mentioned Kyuubi right?" At this the four nodded at him, curious as to the reason of this.

"Fair enough. Demonic chakra feels a lot different than ours. I need to warn you that when we start, you will feel an evil aura around me. Now the amount of chakra I will use is going to be very small so you won't see it. If you do, you would notice it is crimson red instead of the usual blue colour ours has. Don't worry though. Nothing will harm you and I will be in total control at all times. I just want to tell you that if the terrifying feeling you will all experience becomes too much, tell me and we will see what we can do about it. Remember that it is me who is using it. Nothing will change about me with the amounts I am going to use. The more I train this, the more demonic chakra I will be able to handle. If I use too much right away, I might lose control and hurt people as well as myself. Just be honest about your feelings when it becomes too much, it is nothing to be ashamed of." His face then grew a mischievous smirk. "I bet I could make another Jounin wet his pants when I use a lot."

The others laughed uncomfortably but felt relieved at his explanation at the same time. Curiosity and dread battled for dominance but in the end they settled for a simple wait-and-see approach.

"So," Naruto said as he walked towards a group of trees. "Just like before."

Seeing his destination, the four Genin first sweat dropped, than held back their groans.

"Tree walking!"

0o0o0o0

i Ningenkai human realm


End file.
